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WITNESS OF THE SPIEIT: 



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TREATISE ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE 
BELIEVER'S ADOPTION. 



BY DANIEL WALTON. 

AUTHOR OF "THE MATURE CHRISTIAN." 



GEORGE PECK, EDITOR. 



PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT, 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 
JOSEPH LONGKING, PRINTER. 

1847. 






Drew Theol. S©m, 

IAN 't* *W8 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Introduction 3 

Chapter 

I. — The general operation op the spirit . _ 13 
II. — Adoption 23 

III. — The witness of the spirit, considered in 

the direct character of it _ 35 

IV. — The witness of the spirit, as to the 

MODE IN WHICH IT IS GIVEN 57 

V. — The confirmation of the spirit's testi- 
mony BY THE WITNESS OF OUR OWN 

spirit 81 

VI. — The witness of the spirit essential to 

THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL 104 

VII. — The evidence of adoption, considered 

in its degrees of clearness ... 137 

VIII. — Objections answered 165 

IX. — Address to the reader 192 

Appendix . 221 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the following treatise, the reader's attention 
is directed to the consideration of a very solemn 
inquiry, and one which must, we may suppose, 
have presented itself, at some time or other, to 
every spirit that is not utterly a stranger to all 
serious piety. It is this : — Am I now in the 
favor of God? Having been adopted into the 
divine family, do I now sustain the character of 
an heir of everlasting glory ? Of all the ques- 
tions that ever were asked or answered, this must 
be allowed to be among the most important. 

But is it possible, on a subject of such vital 
interest, to obtain, in the present life, a satisfac- 
tory assurance ? Or, must we remain, at most, 
in trembling hope and uncertainty, till the light 
of eternity dispel our darkness, or till the decision 
of the last day fix our everlasting condition ? 

On this point, we think, the Scripture affords 
us ample direction ; and it will be our object to 
show that no anxious fears, resulting from uncer- 
tainty of our present condition and relationship 
toward God, need remain on any Christian mind. 

Were this a matter sufficiently understood by 
the Christian world in general, — were the sincere 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

followers of Christ all duly apprised of their 
privilege, and encouraged to seek it, — we cannot 
but think that the religion of the Lord Jesus 
would be exhibited in a more attractive form, as 
well as attended with a more abundant inward 
consolation. 

It is probably true that, of the entire number 
of evangelical Christians now upon earth, the 
far greater part do actually content themselves 
with an experience of religion in which the joyful 
persuasion of God's love to them has no part. 
Is this, then, Scriptural and right ? If the an- 
swer be given in the negative, we further ask, — 
" Deeply to be regretted as this state of things 
is, is it necessary and inevitable ?" 

Some might be inclined to say, that what is the 
general standard of actual attainment among 
Christians must be supposed to be, and ought 
to be taken to be, the utmost of Christian privi- 
lege that is to be anticipated. This inference is, 
however, we think, totally incorrect. We can- 
not deem it safe to take the prevailing religious 
experience, any more than the prevailing prac- 
tice of any portion of the Christian church, as 
indicating the Scriptural standard. We must go 
directly to the law and to the testimony. 

The writer would be much averse to giving 
needless offense at the outset of his work ; but 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

he craves the indulgence of his readers while he 
states his decided opinion, that far the greater 
portion of Christ's disciples are, at this day, living 
in a state much below what it is their privilege to 
enjoy. And this observation is intended to apply, 
not merely to that portion of the Christian church 
which is notoriously defective in evangelical views 
of the other leading doctrines of the gospel, but 
in great part, also, to that portion of it in which 
the saving truth of our free justification by faith 
is well understood and taught. It would seem 
to follow of course, from the belief that we are 
justified freely on our believing in the atonement, 
that a conscious enjoyment of the "peace of God" 
would plainly appear to be our portion. But it 
is a fact, that multitudes who believe the former, 
have yet no conception that the latter is their 
privilege. Even that portion of the church of 
Christ which holds his saving doctrines in gene- 
ral correctly, does not seem to have been bene- 
fited by the experience of the last hundred years, 
during which the mighty work of a revival of 
primitive religion has been going on. Accom- 
panying that revival, in its first manifestation, 
was the recovery and the reasserting of the doc- 
trine of the Spirit as testifying the believer's 
adoption. This was taught and enforced, perhaps 
almost equally, by Whitefield and by Wesley ; for 



b INTRODUCTION. 

their views on this point, in the first instance, ap- 
pear to have been almost identically the same. 
There is reason to believe, that the system of doc- 
trine which Whitefield taught has not of late years 
been exhibited by his followers exactly as it was 
by that great preacher. The same prominence 
has not been given to the doctrine of the witness 
of the Spirit, as was given to it in his preaching 
and writings. His biographer, Mr. Philip, allows 
this, and justifies it on the ground that he thinks, 
on this point, Mr. Whitefield went too far.* From 
an examination of his writings, it would appear 
that he went just as far in the announcement of 
this doctrine as Mr. Wesley himself; and if he 
did not attempt so logical a defense of it, he, at 
least, declared it with equal fidelity. In his 
letter to the clergy of the diocese of Lichfield 
and Coventry, (Works, vol. iv, p. 180,) after 
quoting Galatians iv, 6, — " Because ye are sons, 
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into 
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father ;" he adds, — 
"Does not this quite clear up that passage of 
Romans viii, 15, about the witnessing Spirit and 
the Spirit of adoption, viz. : that believers, besides 

* " It is needless," says Mr. Philip, (Life of Whitefield, p. 333,) 
"to analyze or characterize Whiteneld's answer to the bishop. 
It is enough to say, that it is full of the great doctrines of the 
Reformation. Even where it pleads for too much of the direct 
witness of the Spirit, it is more than excusable." 






INTRODUCTION. 7 

seeing the miracles which the apostles wrought, 
had an inward testimony of the Holy Ghost? 
he making an inward application of the merits 
of Christ to their souls, and giving them an in- 
ward testimony that they were indeed the adopt- 
ed sons of God, and therefore, in a holy confi- 
dence, they might cry, Abba, Father ! Is there 
anything forced in this interpretation? And, 
consequently, may not persons assert that there 
is such a thing as a witness or testimony of the 
Spirit given to our own consciences, to prove 
that private Christians are the sons of God and 
heirs of salvation, without being censured for so 
doing as modern enthusiasts ?" 

Again, (page 187,) "It is true his lordship" 
(the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry) "does 
talk, here and there, of the blessed Spirit and 
of his ordinary influences ; but what are his or- 
dinary operations if he is neither to dwell in us, 
nor to give us an inward testimony in our hearts 
that we are born of God ?" 

So again, in his remarks on a pamphlet en- 
titled "Enthusiasm of the Methodists and Pa- 
pists compared," he says, (vol.iv, p. 241,) " Need 
you be informed that one grand article of the 
Council of Trent is this, — < That there is no such 
thing as a person's knowing that his sins are for- 
given him, or being assured of his salvation ?' 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

And that with good reason. For if there be such 
a thing as being assured of the forgiveness of our 
sins by the internal testimony, whether mediate 
or immediate, of the Spirit of God, and if a per- 
son ought to be satisfied only with that, then how 
could the people be brought to believe in, and 
trust to, the mere external, verbal absolution of 
a priest ? Our church, on the contrary, in one 
of her homilies, says, that ' a true faith is a sure 
trust and confidence which a man hath in God, 
that, by the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiv- 
en, and he reconciled to the favor of God.' And 
that the Scriptures everywhere promise to be- 
lievers a sure and internal witness from the Spirit 
of God, to witness with their spirits that they are 
his children, is so evident, that he who runs may 
read." 

Such was apparently the doctrine which White- 
field announced with so much power in the early 
times of his ministry, when his preaching, in the 
intensity of its effect, produced results which 
have seldom, if ever, been equaled since the 
days of the apostles. 

If we look back from the date of Whitefield's 
labors to a period more remote, we shall obtain 
a glimpse of what was taught eighty years pre- 
viously, by the evangelical portion of the church, 
in reference to this important privilege. Bunyan, 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

although he makes his pilgrim carry his burden 
of guilt during the first part of his journey, yet 
plainly intimates that the removal of guilt from 
the conscience, and the inward testimony of this 
relative change, are necessary to the believer's 
pursuing his heavenward journey with alacrity. 
" So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian 
came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off 
his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and 
began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it 
came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it 
fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Chris- 
tian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry 
heart, i He hath given me rest by his sorrow, 
and life by his death.' Then he stood still 
awhile, to look and wonder ; for it was very sur- 
prising to him that the sight of the cross should 
thus ease him of his burden. He looked, there- 
fore, and looked again, even till the springs that 
were in his head sent the water down his cheeks. 
Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold 
three shining ones came to him and saluted him 
with 'Peace be to thee.' So the first said to 
him, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee;' the second 
stripped him of his rags and clothed him with 
a change of raiment ; the third, also, set a mark 
on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal 
upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

and that he should give it in at the Celestial 
Gate ; so they went on their way. Then Chris- 
tian gave three leaps for joy, and went on 
singing— 

* Thus far did I come, laden with my sin, 
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in 
Till I came hither :— what a place is this ! 
Must here be the beginning of my bliss ? 
Blest cross ! blest sepulchre ! blest rather be 
The man that there was put to shame for me !' " 

The last century has doubtless introduced 
many improvements in systematic divinity ; but 
it is doubtful whether there has been the same 
improvement in the experimental piety of Chris- 
tians in general, as compared with the times of 
Wesley and Whitefield. There has, at least, in 
one portion of the church, been a declining from 
those cheering views of Christian privilege, in 
reference to the witness of the Spirit to the be- 
liever's adoption which prevailed among pro- 
fessing Christians at the commencement of this 
great work of God, whether they held Arminian 
or Calvinistic sentiments in other respects. 

But this departure from the teaching of a 
century ago may be thought, by some, to be an 
improvement. It may be said that the doctrine 
of the testimony of the Spirit was one of those 
extremes into which a newly awakened zeal led 
those early evangelists; and the apprehension 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

may be felt, (we believe, indeed, is felt,) that 
the doctrine is one of those which lie the most 
open to enthusiastic abuses. 

We are persuaded that this is a most unfound- 
ed apprehension. We hope to be able, on the 
one hand, to show the Scriptural authority of 
the doctrine, and on the other, to quiet the fears 
of those who dread the abuse of it. There can, 
indeed, be no danger of this, if the doctrine be 
taught scripturally ; that is, if it be taught with 
those guards which Holy Scripture directs us to 
apply, in coming to a solemn decision upon our 
Scriptural state. 

It is, no doubt, true, that the most vital and 
saving doctrines are precisely those which are 
most liable to be perverted. But, in this re- 
spect, the doctrine of the Spirit's operation on 
the mind stands but on the same ground with 
that of our free justification by faith, without the 
works of the law. The one, as well as the other, 
may be abused. But certainly neither of them 
is in any danger of being perverted where there 
is true Christian sincerity ; for the Scripture, in 
these cases, and in every similar one, provides 
all the guards which can possibly be needed. 
Were the doctrine of justification by faith to be 
abused, to the effect of making void the moral 
law, as it probably was by some in the apostle's 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

days, yet this would be no reason for discontinu- 
ing the preaching of so vital a doctrine. It 
would only be requisite to show (as the apostle 
does) that the making void of the law does in 
no way follow from the doctrine itself, but is a 
mere abuse of it ; and an abuse into which no 
sincere mind can ever be in any danger of falling. 

Were the perversion of the doctrine of the 
witness of the Spirit, therefore, much more fre- 
quent than we have any reason to believe it to 
be, it would be sufficient for us to point out a 
plain distinction between a line of objectionable 
conduct fairly chargeable upon our doctrinal 
opinions, and the same objectionable conduct 
when it results from the mere abuse of a doc- 
trine whose direct tendency is holy. To draw, 
from a Scriptural truth, inferences which do by 
no means follow from it, or to impute to a doc- 
trine the production of conduct which it cannot 
be proved to sanction, is, in every point of view, 
unreasonable. 

Upon the whole, the reader's attention is here 
invited to a subject well deserving the deepest 
consideration of every immortal spirit. Right 
views are here intimately connected with right 
feelings ; and the privilege is inseparably asso- 
ciated with the enjoyment of deep experimental 
piety. 



THE 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 



CHAPTER L 

THE GENERAL OPERATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

God has revealed himself to us as existing 
in three persons : — The Father, of whom are all 
things, — the Son, through whom are all things, 
— and the Holy Ghost, by whom are all things. 
The inspired volume will further lead us to the 
conclusion, that the Holy Spirit is the adorable 
Agent by whom all divine operations are per- 
formed. In reference to nature, providence, 
and grace, this observation would probably be 
found to be equally true ; but our present con- 
cern is with the human soul, as the subject of 
divine and gracious influences. Laying apart, 
therefore, for the present, all consideration of 
his influence exerted on material nature in re- 
newing the face of the earth, we have reason to 
believe that, wherever there is a human spirit, 
there the Holy Ghost causes his voice to be 
heard, and makes his power to be felt. He is 
there to warn, to direct, to control. For he is 



14 WITNESS OP THE SPIRIT. 

an ever-present, all-pervading Spirit; existing 
not only around us, but within us ; — and we can 
no more withdraw ourselves from his presence 
and influence, than we can be withdrawn, as 
to our bodies, from the contact of the external air. 

This operation of Spirit on spirit is, indeed, 
incomprehensible by us ; because the laws of it 
are not fully revealed ; but it is not the less real 
on account of the mystery in which it is in- 
volved. The mutual influence of finite minds 
is far from being fully understood. We know 
not, in a thousand instances, how one human 
spirit operates upon another ; and the more this 
influence is investigated as to the laws which 
govern its operation, the more diversified and 
incomprehensible do those laws appear. 

Our inability to comprehend what will pro- 
bably continue, during our present state, to be 
involved in no small degree of obscurity should 
not be suffered to prevent our belief of a great 
Scriptural truth. 

There is an influence of God, the Eternal 
Spirit, upon the mind of man, by which the 
whole of internal religion is produced. The 
belief or rejection of this, makes the most evi- 
dent distinction between the real Christian and 
others. The doctrine is, therefore, a vital and 
fundamental one. We cannot, without renounc- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 15 

ing the clearest teachings of the inspired volume, 
refuse to believe that there is an operation of 
the Holy Spirit upon the understanding to en- 
lighten it, — upon the will to direct and con- 
trol it, — upon the affections to elevate them 
from earth, — upon the desires to turn them from 
what is sinful to what is holy. 

Our more immediate purpose, at present, is 
indeed to speak of the Spirit in one of his 
offices, as the Spirit of adoption. But we may 
be the better prepared to do this with effect, if 
we lay the foundation of our remarks, on this 
specific point, in some observations touching the 
widely extended and pervading operations of 
the Holy Ghost upon the human mind. 

To judge, therefore, of this matter, from Holy 
Scripture, we think it reasonable to conclude, 
that all right feeling in the human heart is, more 
or less directly, to be attributed to the Spirit of 
God. His operations, though, doubtless, most 
conspicuous in the transformation and renewal 
of his saints, are not confined to them. "We 
think it probable, that no human being, who is 
found in this probationary state of human life, 
exists apart from the controlling influence of 
an ever-present power, — an influence various 
and diversified to an indefinite extent, but all 
tending to good. We apprehend that conscience 
2 



16 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

is a mysterious power speaking in the human 
breast with the voice of the divine Spirit, so 
far as it is enlightened by a revelation of the 
will of God. Viewed, indeed, apart from all 
consideration of the will of a Supreme Go- 
vernor, and apart from all visitations of the 
Spirit, conscience would judge at random ; and 
tbe motions of this, inward power, whether of 
conviction, warning, regret, or self-condemna- 
tion, would be unmeaning, as they would be 
vague and uncertain. But light from heaven 
is continually, in a greater or less degree, beam- 
ing upon the human soul ; while, in its judicial 
capacity, it passes sentence upon itself; and, in 
the court where conscience exercises her juris- 
diction, the voice of the Spirit of God is heard. 
What are called the checks of conscience are 
often direct admonitions from the Spirit of God ; 
and the decisions of the human will are fre- 
quently, we have reason to believe, controlled 
and directed toward a result which was far from 
being in the contemplation of the man himself. 
How, irideed, could God govern the world, 
so as to accomplish, with the utmost certainty, 
his designs of mercy or of judgment, if all 
hearts (as the hearts of kings are expressly as- 
serted to be) were not in his hands, to " turn 
them as the rivers of water." 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT* 17 

Let it, however, be here observed, that we 
do not intend, by this view, to represent the 
human being as a mere machine, — acting and 
moving solely as it is acted upon. But what is 
most admirable, — worthy, indeed, of all wonder, 
is, that all this interposition and influence of 
the Spirit of God takes place so as not to de- 
stroy, in any way, the free agency of man. The 
visitations and suggestions of the sacred Spirit 
so mingle with the free volitions of the human 
mind, that the divine purposes are accomplished 
with the utmost certainty. Man pursues his 
own plans and purposes ; and God accomplishes 
his own merciful designs. Man proposes, and 
God disposes. 

The decisions of the human will, then, are 
constantly, more or less, under a divine and 
controlling influence. This seems to be evi- 
dently implied in the doctrine of an overruling 
Providence, — of a divine care extending to the 
most minute events, — and regulating the fall of 
an empire — the fall of a sparrow — or the fall 
of a hair. The divine government of all events, 
indeed, cannot be held by us, and carried out to 
its legitimate consequences, without inducing 
the belief, that man, being the object of con- 
tinual care to Him who made him, is, also, the 
continual subject of a divine control. In the 



18 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

interior recesses of his hearty the Spirit's voice 
is heard. In the decisions of his will, in a 
thousand instances, that divine Spirit exercises 
a benign and gracious direction. u We are the 
clay ;" and the Ruler of all events molds us 
and fashions us to the accomplishment of the 
purposes of his own all-comprehensive mind. 

In perfect correspondence with this view, let 
us consider how the Scripture attributes to the 
Holy Spirit the whole of those gracious opera- 
tions in man, by which he becomes a new crea- 
ture, by which all old things pass away, and all 
things become new. 

"He shall," says the Saviour, "reprove the 
world of sin." No sinner, we have reason to 
believe, goes on in his sinful courses without 
many misgivings, especially if his lot be cast in 
a country where the light of divine truth shines. 
The degree of power with which the Eternal 
Spirit reproves for sin, the brightness of the 
blaze of conviction which he causes to flash 
upon the sinner's conscience, the degree of per- 
severing tenderness with which he woos and 
wins the consent of the rebellious heart to come 
to Christ, are, without doubt, diversified to an 
almost infinite extent. And to these, his gen- 
eral and ordinary operations, we may apply 
what the apostle has said (1 Cor. xii, 11) of 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 19 

those that are extraordinary and miraculous, 
" All these worketh that one and the self-same 
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he 
will." 

This, however, is plainly one of his offices, 
to give effect to the gospel in awakening regret 
and alarm on account of sin. The edge of this 
sword of the Spirit thus becomes keen, and its 
power resistless. Conviction is followed by re- 
gret and sorrow. Sin is not only perceived, but 
rightly estimated as to its character and conse- 
quences. At the same time, a sense of thraldom 
and helplessness, as to any escape from it, is pro- 
duced. For the Spirit convinces of a bondage 
from which there is no deliverance, except by the 
gospel. And now, the soul being brought to 
this sense of its utter helplessness and misery, 
it is further the office of the Holy Spirit to speak 
effectually of the condescension, the grace, and 
tenderness of Christ ; to reveal his suitableness 
as a Saviour, that the wearied spirit may repose 
its trust in him. It is by the attractive power 
of the Holy Ghost that the soul is drawn to 
Christ, comes to Christ, and believes in Christ. 
The faith that brings salvation is " a faith of 
the operation of God ;" and is exercised by the 
soul under the guidance and assistance of the 
Holy Spirit. 



20 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

When this faith is represented as mighty to 
conquer the world, to work by love, to purify the 
heart, it must be understood to effect this only 
instrument-ally. The Spirit of God is still the 
Agent by whom these mighty effects are wrought 
in man. He renews the soul. He causes all old 
things to pass away. He makes all things new. 
His moving upon the face of the waters, in the 
first creation, to bring forth the order and beauty 
which appeared in the primitive world, was but 
an emblem of that transforming and creative 
power by which the new creation is effected in 
those who believe. The latter is as truly and 
plainly an instance of his divine working as the 
former. 

And, still further, the Spirit's operations upon 
the human mind are extended to its entire and 
ultimate renewal in holiness. At its first trust- 
ing in Christ, the soul obtains the implantation 
of a new principle — that of love to the Saviour. 
The entire sanctification of the human creature 
is but the perfect development of this principle, 
under the incessant influence of the Holy Ghost. 
It is, instrumentally, " by the truth," but imme 
diatelyby the Spirit — by direct spiritual agency 
- — that the soul is made holy. The Holy Ghost 
is the Sanctifier. 

Many other offices does the same gracious 



WITNESS OP THE SPIRIT. 21 

Spirit perform in reference to believers ; on 
which we need not here dwell at large. He is 
their Guide ; and they are " led by the Spirit," 
and " walk in the Spirit." They hear his myste- 
rious inward voice, are warned, excited to duty, 
directed in difficulty, and all their stepa are 
ordered by him. 

He is the Comforter of the saints of God; 
promised in this character by their Saviour ; sent 
into their hearts to reveal the hidden sources 
of consolation, and to speak in accents of ten- 
derness and love to them in all their trials. 

He is their Support — ministering to all be- 
lievers secret supplies of spiritual energy — 
strengthening them with might in the inner 
man. 

If the object of this treatise were to set forth 
a complete view of all the gracious work of the 
Holy Spirit, it would be needful to expatiate on 
each of these topics at some considerable length. 
They are only adverted to here, to prepare the 
mind for the reception of the doctrine which we 
now proceed to announce. It is the distinct 
office of the Holy Spirit to assure believers that 
they are received into the family of God ; that 
they are pardoned — that they are invested with 
a title to everlasting glory. He is called the 
Spirit of adoption — as presiding over that gra- 



22 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

cious act of God the Father, by which he con- 
stitutes us his children — as witnessing it to our 
souls, and sealing us unto the day of redemption, 
by impressing upon us the mark and stamp of 
Deity. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent 
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, 
crying, Abba, Father." Gal. iv, 6. " Ye have 
not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, 
but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Rom. viii, 15. 
From these and other passages, we think it 
appears evident that believers in those primitive 
days (and why should it be otherwise in these 
days?) were adopted into the family of God; 
were the sons of God ; and received a clear and 
indubitable testimony from the Holy Spirit as 
to this gracious act of their adoption. What is 
implied in this invaluable privilege we shall 
proceed to consider in the next chapter. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 23 

CHAPTER II. 

ADOPTION. 

The testimony of the Spirit is given to this 
fact, that we are become the sons of God, by 
adoption into his family. " Because ye are sons, 
God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your 
hearts." This phrase is used in Holy Scripture 
with a diversity of application. A relationship 
to God, expressed by the term " Son/' has been 
borne by beings in very different circumstances. 
Jesus Christ, for instance, is denominated the 
Son of God in a peculiar sense. " Thou art my 
Son, this day have I begotten thee ;" on which 
the brief and beautiful comment of Mr. Wesley 
is, " God of God — Light of light — I have be- 
gotten thee from eternity, which, by its unalter- 
able permanency of duration, is one continued 
unsuccessive day." 

Angels are also denominated " sons of God." 
In a sublime passage of the Book of Job, which 
describes the laying of the earth's foundations, 
the morning stars are said to have " sung toge- 
ther, and the sons of God shouted for joy." 
These holy beings, deriving as they did their en- 
tire existence immediately from God, are called 
his sons ; but still, in a sense widely different 



24 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

from that in which Jesus Christ is so denomi- 
nated. "He hath, by inheritance, obtained a 
more excellent name than ' they." For unto 
which of the angels said the Eternal Father, 
" at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have 
I begotten thee ?" 

In a sense not materially different from that in 
which angels receive this title, it is also given to 
Adam. In tracing up the genealogy of our Lord 
and Saviour, St. Luke concludes the series thus : 
" Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was 
the son of God." It is probably in reference 
to the immediate act of creation, in which Adam 
received at once his entire being from the hand 
of his Creator, that he is thus specially denomi- 
nated " the son of God." 

But it is in a sense very different from that in 
which the phrase is used in either of the above 
instances that believers are denominated the sons 
of God. They are so, not by generation, not 
by an immediate act of creation, but by adop- 
tion. " Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." 

Adoption is a gracious act of God the Father, 
whereby for the sake of the atonement made by 
Christ on the cross, and in consideration of faith 
on the part of his creatures in that atonement, 
he receives into his family, and admits to all the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 25 

privileges of his house, those who trust in the 
death of his Son. And the witness of the Spirit 
is the testimony of God, that this solemn act 
has taken place. Let it be here observed, that 
justification and adoption, although in their for- 
mal character they are not precisely the same 
thing — for they may be distinguished — yet are 
never separated nor disunited. Whom God jus- 
tifies he also adopts. If he pardons the sinner, 
he also receives him into his family. Yet the 
distinction between these two inseparable bless- 
ings is plainly enough to be perceived. An 
earthly sovereign sometimes pardons a criminal, 
but seldom or never adopts him into his family. 
He dismisses him from his presence ; and, not 
unfrequently, under a severe prohibition never 
to approach his court again. 

But very different is the grace showed to 
pardoned sinners. It is more ample and com- 
plete ; and, indeed, every way worthy of the 
great Jehovah. He is so gracious and conde- 
scending as to unite two inestimable favors in 
one ; — the forgiveness of the past, and sonship 
for the future. He pardons the transgressions 
of the repentant sinner, upon his believing in 
the atoning death of Christ.; blotting out im- 
mense, and long-continued, and most aggravated 
offenses. And herein is love. It is an act of 



i*6 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 



unspeakable grace and condescension. But, at 
the next step, even this grace is surpassed, and 
left far behind. He says to the offender, to 
whom he has just forgiven offenses of unparal- 
leled magnitude, " Come to my paternal arms, — 
come into my house, — come and partake of all 
the privileges of my family." 

1. Adoption then supposes, first, a change of 
our relation to God. It supposes our being 
brought out of a previous state of alienation, 
and distance, and opposition, to become, by in- 
corporation, members of the family of God. 

The usage or ceremony of adoption was of 
frequent occurrence among the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, at the time when the apostle wrote ; and 
his language would, therefore, be immediately 
comprehended. As we have not, among our 
laws, any prescribed form for the transferring 
of a child to another family, it is perhaps not 
so easy for us as it was for those who first re- 
ceived the epistle, to take in the precise idea of 
the apostle. The laws of ancient Rome, regu- 
lating this ceremony, were exactly prescribed ; 
and the ceremony itself was doubtless of fre- 
quent occurrence. There could, therefore, to 
the first readers of this epistle, be no difficulty 
in apprehending St. Paul's meaning. 

The child was taken from the house of its 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 27 

parent, and introduced, with the accustomed 
formalities, into the house of the benevolent in- 
dividual who adopted it. That benevolent indi- 
vidual, in the act of adopting the child, engaged 
to act toward it as a father. He engaged to 
watch over its welfare^ — to provide for its 
wants, — to be in all respects in loco parentis, — 
to stand in the place of its natural parent. He 
took the charge of the education and training 
of the helpless being now cast upon his care. 
That training was to be in reference to its future 
prospects ; and it was at least supposed and 
understood, that the child so adopted should be 
admitted to share the inheritance of his adopt- 
ing father ; as much so as if he had been born 
in the house. 

When these circumstances are considered, it 
immediately appears that the term " adoption," 
which implies all this, is very full of instruction. 
Previously to this act of God's grace, by which 
he received and adopted us, we stood in a very 
different relation to him. We were strangers 
and aliens ; strangers to the covenant of his pro- 
mise, — aliens from the commonwealth of his 
Israel. We knew him not as our Father in 
heaven. More than this, we were disobedient, 
— living in the continual disregard of his laws, 
and the contempt of his authority. The whole 



28 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

course of our lives was in opposition to his will 
and his published requirements. Still further, 
all this gave us no concern. We grieved not 
over this our lapsed, disordered, and perilous 
condition. Our will even concurred in it. It 
was become habitual and natural. We were 
"enemies in our minds by wicked works." 
Strangers, disobedient, and enemies ! Thus his 
grace finds us. How great the change, when, 
by adoption, we become his loving and obedient 
children ! 

It is to be understood that there are certain 
conditions to this act of God's mercy, prelimi- 
nary to its bestowment. It is to be understood 
that, by repentance, he has turned us from our 
disobedience, and that moreover we have sub- 
mitted to be saved in his own appointed method, 
through faith in his dear Son. It is immedi- 
ately conditional to our passing into the family 
of God, that we receive Christ into our hearts 
by faith. Then is fulfilled that scripture, " As 
many as received him, to them gave he power 
to become the sons of God, even to them that 
believe on his name." John i, 12. The Father 
of their spirits pardons all their sins past, takes 
them for his own, treats them as though they 
had never been otherwise than his children, as 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 29 

though they had never been either enemies or 
even strangers. He calls them (that is, actually 
constitutes them) his sons and daughters. Hav- 
ing adopted them, he engages to act toward 
them as a parent. He watches over them with 
parental care ; guides their steps ; averts evil 
from them ; and provides for them all which his 
infinite wisdom sees to be for their good. It is 
part of his merciful purpose, also, to educate 
them with a reference to that eternal inheritance 
which is in reversion for them. And in this 
light — as a training for eternity — must we view 
that diversified scene of trial to which they 
are here exposed. Prosperity and adversity, 
pain and ease, joys, sorrows, hopes, and fears — 
all are instruments of edification in His hands, 
who is training many sons for a glorious immor- 
tality. 

2. Adoption, we may further observe, in ad- 
dition to a new relation in which we now stand 
to God, implies a change and enlargement of 
our privileges. Having constituted us his sons 
by adoption, he now admits us to the possession 
of all the blessings and advantages of sonship. 
An enemy or a stranger (and such we were) is 
entirely destitute of privileges. A servant has 
some few, and those of an inferior order. But 



30 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

a son has many privileges which are peculiar to 
his state and relation. " Thou art," says the 
apostle, " no more a servant, but a son." 

A child-like confidence is immediately substi- 
tuted for anxiety and alarm. The shy distrust 
mingled with fear, which an enemy, or a stranger, 
or even a servant might feel, is all removed ; and 
in the place of it, there exists toward God a 
filial disposition, that is, the disposition of a son 
toward a father. This becomes now the habitual 
feeling of the soul, in reference to the greatest 
and best of beings. There is no more the 
shrinking of guilt. There is no more the dis- 
trust which is the offspring of a conscious expo- 
sure to wrath. In prayer, and in all the exer- 
cises of devotion, the soul draws near to God. 
He permits, — nay more, he enjoins, — that in all 
our addresses to him, we should use freedom 
and confidence, mingled with humility. " Let 
us come boldly to the throne of grace." 

There is liberty from the galling servitude of 
sin. There is liberty from the thraldom of doing 
God's service with the fear of the rod hanging 
over our heads. There is liberty to walk free 
from all successful obstruction, and to keep 
God's commandments. " Stand fast, therefore, 
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us 
free, and be not entangled, again with the yoke 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 31 

of bondage." Gal. v, 1. For where the attest- 
ing Spirit of the Lord is, " there is liberty." 

Further : among the privileges of the adopted 
children of God, perfect safety is implied. If 
we have been accepted and received into the 
family of the great Jehovah, then are we under 
his protection — then are we safe — all our inter- 
ests are safe. His paternal ear is ever ready 
to hear our requests ; — -his paternal arms are 
ever ready to be stretched out for our rescue 
when danger is near. His fatherly counsel will 
be administered in the time of doubt and per- 
plexity ; — -and a care, more peculiar and special 
even than that which is " over all his works," 
will be exercised over our welfare. 

In short, if permission to approach the King 
of kings as frequently as our wants may require, 
— if freedom in addressing him, — if an assurance 
of his care, and love, and providence over us, are 
privileges which ought to be prized, then are the 
adopted children of God highly favored ; for to 
their possession of these privileges does the Spirit 
of adoption give his testimony. 

3. We have seen that a change of relation, 
accompanied with an increase of privileges, is 
experienced by all the children of God. But 
this is not all. More of blessing is included in 
this happy state into which believers are intro- 
3 



32 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

duced. It implies an entire change of prospect ; 
unfolds bright hopes of still better things to come, 
and opens glorious visions of future and inter- 
minable happiness. 

Let it be observed, however, that it is not — 
this testimony of the Spirit is not — an assurance 
given to believers of their final perseverance in v 
the good ways of God ; nor is it the impartation 
of certain knowledge that they shall infallibly 
attain the happiness of heaven. It is not, in- 
deed, a testimony as to the future in any sense, 
but as to the present. It relates altogether to 
the present condition of happy relationship to- 
ward God in which they note stand. It is ex- 
pressed by those words of another apostle, — 
" Beloved, now are we the sons of God." 

Nevertheless, although the Spirit of adoption 
is simply a testimony given as to a state of 
things now present, it is impossible but that 
such a blessing should have a material influence 
upon the future prospects of those to whom it is 
given. A title to the unfading glories of heaven 
is implied in it ; for " if children, then heirs ; 
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. 
viii, 17. It must, therefore, of necessity, change 
all their views of the future. Heretofore, their 
anticipations were all bounded by time. There 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 33 

was nothing beyond it which was pleasant to 
contemplate. But now the case is far otherwise 
with them. A crown is before them, — a king- 
dom in the heavens which shall not pass away. 
They are already kings as well as priests unto 
God. How all their views are changed ! What 
they viewed as great and dignified before has 
lost all its attractions. The loftiest of this 
world's glories is brought low, and all its bright- 
est splendors are obscured. But their faith 
brings the distant nigh, and reveals the invisible ; 
and, while this changes their former views of 
things, it must also influence and elevate their 
characters. So far as their evidence of sonship 
to God is bright and clear, it will raise them 
above everything that is little, and low, and 
earthly. They will act, and speak, and think 
as the children of an Almighty King, and the 
dignity of heaven will be impressed upon all 
they do. 

Their views of the glory which awaits them 
must needs soothe their sorrows while they re- 
main in this present state of banishment. If 
they are poor, oppressed, or despised, they per- 
ceive that their Saviour was so before them; 
and they see him now raised to a celestial throne, 
and promising them that, in due time, they shall 



34 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

share it. O ! if we have heaven before us, we 
may well dry up the tears shed for any sublu- 
nary cause of sorrow ! 

w Why should the children of a King 
Go mourning all their days?" 

Upon the whole, the blessedness of a state of 
adoption must be allowed to be very great. 
What a mercy is this that we should be called, 
that is, constituted, the children and heirs of the 
divine Majesty! How great is the love that 
makes us so ! What manner of love is this, says 
St. John, that we should be called the sons of 
God ! — we, who were so unlikely and so unwor- 
thy to obtain this sublime designation. Slaves 
we were, and we are made free ; — polluted, and 
w^e are made clean ; — guilty, and we are pardon- 
ed. For He hath blotted out our sins as a cloud 
passes away before the sun. 

" Herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
that he loved us !" And love of the most ex- 
traordinary character, unexampled in its source, 
in its objects, in its degree ; a theme of everlast- 
ing praise and of everlasting wonder. How can 
it be, thou Lord of heaven and earth, that from 
among a race of guilty and alienated rebels thou 
shouldst adopt thy sons, and make slaves the 
partners of thy throne ? Yet so it is. This is 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 35 

the matter of the testimony. This is the very 
thing to which, as we are about to show, a divine 
testimony is given ; namely, u that we are the 
children of God." 



CHAPTER in. 

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT CONSIDERED IN 
THE DIRECT CHARACTER OF IT. 

Adoption, according to the view taken of it 
in the previous chapter, is a gracious act of God, 
by which an important change is produced in our 
relation to him, our heavenly Father. The 
change being, however, a relative one, and re- 
ferring to the kind and loving disposition felt at 
present toward us by our heavenly Parent, must, 
if we are to know it, be made known to us by 
himself. The knowledge of what passes in the 
divine mind must, if it be known at all, be di- 
vinely revealed. " For what man knoweth the 
things of a man. save the spirit of man which 
is in him ? so the things of God knoweth no man 
but the Spirit of God." It will scarcely be al- 
ledged that it is of small importance to the Chris- 
tian life whether this, our adoption into the divine 
family, be made known to us or not. We assume 
for the present, and shall hereafter endeavor to 



36 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

demonstrate at large, that the knowledge of our 
heavenly Father's adopting love to us enters 
into all that is most vital in religious experience. 
It may be sufficient here to appeal to all who 
have read the New Testament carefully, whether 
it is not evident that believers, during the first 
age of Christianity, rejoiced in a satisfactory as- 
surance of their being in the divine favor. This 
was their language : — " Beloved, now are we the 
sons of God. . . . God hath sent forth the Spirit 
of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Fa- 
ther. . . . We have received the atonement. . . . 
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
the Holy Ghost. . . . We joy in God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Whom having not seen, 
we love ; in whom, though now we see him not, 
yet believing, we rejoice. . . . By whom also we 
have access into this grace wherein we stand, 
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 

It is impossible to read these passages (and 
numberless others of a similar purport might be 
adduced) without perceiving that, whatever may 
be the case with respect to religious experience 
now, it was, in those early times, of a peculiarly 
joyous character. Believers evidently walked 
in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. Happy in 
the conscious favor of God in this world, they 
looked forward with a blessed hope of dwelling 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 37 

in his presence everlastingly. Nor ought it to 
be otherwise with believers at present. Is it 
for a moment to be supposed that Christian privi- 
lege has diminished with the lapse of time? — 
that a change has taken place of which no inti- 
mation is anywhere given in Scripture? — that, 
in a word, Christians are not to be now what 
they evidently were then ? In all respects, ex- 
cepting the miraculous gifts of the early church, 
(and it is with some hesitation that we look even 
upon those as forming any exception,) we ap- 
prehend the intention of Almighty God to be, 
that his people now should be equally adorned 
with beauty, and filled with glorious happiness, 
as in the primitive days. 

It is surely to do injustice to Christianity to 
suppose that, like the previous dispensations, it 
is to shine with diminished brightness as ages 
roll on, as though it hastened to decay, and was 
about to disappear. On the contrary, the more 
correct view appears to be, that, instead of losing 
any of its power to bless, and save, and make 
happy, Christ's religion is, in all these respects, 
to shine with a continually augmenting splendor 
until it is finally swallowed up in the glory of 
the celestial economy, and lost in the approach- 
ing brightness of heaven. 

Most desirable and valuable, as all must per- 



38 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

ceive and allow, is the privilege of knowing, 
with a comfortable assurance, that we are adopt- 
ed into the family of God. And the point of 
inquiry to which we would now direct the read- 
er's attention is this, — By what means, and in 
what method, is this "knowledge of salvation 
by the remission of sins" (Luke i, 77) to be 
obtained ? Whence is that knowledge (surely 
surpassing all earthly science) to be derived? 
and to what sources of evidence is the inquiring 
mind to be directed ? 

Let it be here observed — that the question 
now is, not what this or the other divine has 
taught, for we have ventured to suggest an 
opinion, that there has been great confusion of 
thought, and obscurity of view, among some of 
the most celebrated divines, on this interesting 
subject. But our appeal is now to the Scrip- 
tures. And we wish to inquire, — What is the 
method taught by Holy Scripture, in which a 
believer is to ascertain his relation of sonship to 
God ? It may be as well here to allow, at once, 
that our view of the directions of Scripture in 
reference to this important privilege may be 
deemed peculiar, when contrasted with those 
very generally propounded at the present day. 
We perceive in the word of God, that one plain 
designation of the Holy Ghost is that of " the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 39 

Spirit of adoption" In this mode of expres- 
sion, we conceive it to be implied, that the 
knowledge of our adoption is, in the first in- 
stance, communicated by Him alone, — that it is 
his specific work, — that it is an office of the 
Holy Ghost, as clearly defined as any other 
attributed to him ; as when, for instance, he is 
called the Teacher, or Sanctifier, or Guide of 
God's people, — and that, in a word, the know- 
ledge of our acceptance with God is in no other 
way to be obtained by us, except through his 
divine testimony. 

We are aware, that the most common mode 
of adverting to this privilege of believers, is 
somewhat like the following : — " The Spirit bears 
witness (it is said) to our adoption, in the Scrip- 
tures ; — it is the Spirit in the word, or the 
Spirit through the medium of the word." When 
we hesitate to receive this interpretation, and 
press for a little more light as to its exact mean- 
ing, we find that the views of those w T ho receive 
it may thus be defined : — The Spirit of God, 
who inspired the sacred penmen, has laid down 
in the Bible certain marks of the children of 
God. By these marks we are to examine our- 
selves, and if they are found in us, we are autho- 
rized to draw the conclusion that we have been 
adopted into the divine family. And further. 



40 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

when the inference is favorable, we may be said 
to have received the Spirit of adoption, and 
to have the testimony of the Spirit to our 
sonship. 

Such an interpretation of the Scriptural mode 
of speaking, however, will hardly be thought 
quite satisfactory by those who candidly con- 
sider Saint Paul's mode of expressing himself, 
both in the Epistle to the Romans, viii, 16, and 
in that to the Galatians, iv, 6. In the former 
he says, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit;" — a peculiar mode of expression, 
and one which will by no means agree with the 
notion that all the testimony of the Spirit is 
comprised in what he has spoken in the Scrip- 
ture. If I say, " A man himself testified to me," 
I surely mean by this something more than that 
he has written various things, from which, when 
viewed in conjunction and carefully considered, 
I infer that such is his mind. Besides, those 
who say that the Spirit testifies in the Scrip- 
tures, should observe that not only does the 
apostle himself not assert this, but he asserts 
what will render that interpretation impracti- 
cable. He tells us, with sufficient plainness, 
where the Holy Ghost bears his testimony. It 
is in our spirit, — it is to our spirit,— it is with 
our spirit. His mode of speaking apparently 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 41 

includes all these ; (evuuaprvpei ro> nvevfjLart 
tjugov,) and no interpretation which excludes ei- 
ther of those ideas can be said to express the full 
force of the apostolic language. The testimony 
is directly given in the first instance, — the evi- 
dence is communicated by the Spirit of God to 
the spirit of man. It is given in the interior 
sanctuary of the heart, by that mysterious pro- 
cess of communication by which the Holy Spirit 
can make known his will, and cause his voice to 
be heard. It is subsequently confirmed and 
perfected by the testimony of our own spirit. 
For the blessing which we denominate " the 
witness of the Spirit," in its ordinary enjoyment 
by believers, consists, according to our view, of 
the concurrent testimony of the Spirit of God 
with ours, 

"Without calling in question, therefore, the 
propriety of self-examination by those Scrip- 
tural marks of sonship referred to, (a duty 
which, as we shall presently show, has its pro- 
per place and importance,) we would appeal to 
any candid mind, whether the passages we are 
now considering (Rom. viii, ] 6 ; Gal. iv, 6) can 
be supposed to refer to a lengthened process of 
examination and inference ; — whether, in short, 
something more direct and immediate must not 
necessarily be intended. "The Spirit itself 



42 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

beareth witness with our spirit/' must surely 
mean something more than — The Spirit hath 
described in Scripture certain marks of the 
children of God. 

To this doctrine, that the witness of the Spirit 
is only by a conformity to the marks of God's 
children laid down in Scripture, we have two 
principal objections. In the first place, — It is 
beginning at the wrong end ; and, in addition, 
the evidence derived from it must necessarily 
be defective, and must fail of producing a satis- 
factory persuasion. 

It is, in the first instance, a reversing the 
proper order of proceeding, to expect those 
marks of sonship, — marks which are chiefly, if 
not entirely, the results of manifested adoption, 
— before any knowledge of adoption itself has 
been apprehended. They will follow after. 
They will be the fruits of the Spirit, and will 
confirm the belief of the presence of the Spirit 
of adoption in the heart. But were not that 
Spirit previously there, and were not his testi- 
mony to our acceptance with God freely and 
graciously given, those signs of sonship could 
not exist. For the marks most to be relied on 
are, love to a pardoning God, — delight in God, 
—peace with God, — joy in God, — submission 
to God. All these must spring out of his mani- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 43 

fested love to us. But to expect them as the 
first step, without the previous revelation of 
Christ in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is very 
much like the expectation of fruit, while the 
tree itself is not yet planted. Admitting, there- 
fore, as we willingly do, that there are certain 
criteria, from which a probable inference as to 
our adoption may be drawn, we are persuaded 
that those criteria themselves cannot exist, with- 
out the previous manifestation of God's love to 
us ; and that to expect them apart from this, as 
signs going before to establish the knowledge of 
it, is indeed to reverse the established Scriptural 
order. It is to begin at the wrong end. 

But, in addition, that inference thus attempted 
to be drawn will not be satisfactory, nor con- 
clusive. We very much doubt, if ever there 
was an instance of any man arriving at such an 
assurance of God's favor as excluded painful 
fear and doubt, if he merely sought evidence on 
that point by examining whether the marks of 
God's children were in him. As we are speak- 
ing to a matter of fact, we would speak with all 
becoming diffidence. But such is the result of 
all our observations. We have always found 
such persons full of doubts and fears, on a point 
of vital importance to their own religious com- 
fort. This might reasonably be expected, if 



44 WITNESS OP THE SPIRIT. 

they are seeking the blessing of assurance (as, 
according to our views, they are) in a mistaken 
method. They are beginning where they ought 
to end. They are looking for fruits which only 
the Spirit of adoption himself can produce. 
But this office of the Holy Spirit, to witness the 
believer's adoption, they set aside and deny. In 
consequence, the fruits of the Spirit are not 
found in them ; or, at most, the peace, the joy, 
the love, the victory over the world, and the 
other evidences of a change of relation toward 
God, are miserably defective, both in character 
and degree. They are but shadowy and faint 
outlines of those graces which must really exist, 
and exist in some degree of perfection, before 
they can aiford any satisfactory evidence on a 
point like this. 

Here, indeed, is the chief difficulty ; — in the 
impossibility of knowing in what measure and 
degree these graces must exist, in order to con- 
stitute a sufficient evidence of a change of state. 
And if, therefore, we will not admit of any 
other evidence but that derived from the fruits 
of the Spirit, we shall be in perpetual uncer- 
tainty. We cannot, for instance, from any con- 
sciousness of our faith, infer our justification. 
We know, indeed, that "he that believeth is 
justified from all things." But, surely, it is not 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 45 

every degree of faith, nor every kind of faith, 
to which the promise is made. So that, if we 
leave out of our creed the testimony of the 
Spirit of adoption, we shall still remain in 
doubt and uncertainty. For who is to assure 
us that our faith is of the right kind, and that it 
is exercised in that degree which the gospel 
requires ? It is again admitted that love to God, 
obedience to the commands of God, delight in 
God, and love to the people of God, are marks 
of his children. But here again it may be ob- 
served, that it is not any inferior degree of these 
graces from which - it will be safe to draw a 
favorable inference as to our state. As they 
may exist in all possible degrees, at what point, 
it may be asked, and in what degree of their 
possession, do they begin to be evidences of a 
change of relation to God? Can this point be 
ascertained satisfactorily, without having re- 
course to a direct communication from the eter- 
nal Spirit ? It will be impossible to judge ac- 
curately of the value of these signs of accept- 
ance, unless, as the apostle says, we "receive 
the Spirit which is of God, that we may know 
the things which are freely given to us of God." 
1 Cor. ii, 12. Admitting, as we do, that our 
justification and adoption are inseparably at- 
tached to the performance of certain conditions 



46 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

on our part, it still appears plain that we should 
need a direct communication from the Holy 
Spirit of God, to assure us that we had ade- 
quately performed those conditions, before we 
could in this way (even were that the Scriptural 
w T ay) safely infer our filial relation to God. 

We may here appeal to facts. Does not the 
penitent seeker of salvation find it to be an utter 
impossibility to ground his confidence of being 
now accepted on anything that has been even 
divinely wrought in him ? He can see nothing 
but sin. He has nothing but a sense of utter 
worthlessness. The more deeply penitent he 
is, the more does he write bitter things against 
himself. You tell him, as the evidence of his 
acceptance, to look at the graces which the 
Spirit has wrought in him. Alas! his eyes 
are dimmed with tears. He cannot see them. 
He sees defect and sin marking all his actions. 
Nothing but an evidence external to anything 
that is in himself can clear up his doubts, and 
remove his alarms. No reasoning — no infer- 
ence can decide the point. The very depth and 
genuineness of his repentance render a favora- 
ble conclusion in reference to his own state im- 
possible. A kind of evidence, therefore, totally 
different from the reasonings of his own spirit, 
becomes absolutely necessary; for, those rea- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 47 

sonings, just in proportion as he is humble and 
penitent, will be confused and dark, and will 
lean toward a conclusion of an unfavorable cha- 
racter. 

But here, according to our view, conies in the 
only relief of this state of painful doubt and 
uncertainty. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of 
adoption, removes this distressing fear and 
alarm which is felt by every sincere penitent. 
Upon his believing in the atonement made by 
the Son of God, so as to trust alone in it for jus- 
tification, — indeed in the very moment of his so 
believing, — "the Spirit itself" affords the de- 
lightful, heartfelt testimony, that " his faith is 
counted unto him for righteousness," — that the 
gracious act of his free justification from all the 
guilt of his past sins has taken place, and that 
he is now taken into a filial relation to his hea- 
venly Father. 

Some of the passages of Holy Scripture, from 
which we gather this important doctrine, we 
have already quoted. But let us here review 
them in their combined force, and as throwing 
light upon each other. The foundation of the 
whole is laid here : — "As many as received him, 
to them gave he power" [egovotav, the privi- 
lege] " to become the sons of God, even to them 
that believe on his name ; — which were bom. 
4 



48 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

not .... of man, but of Gocl." Adoption is, there- 
fore, the inseparable attendant of a reception 
of Christ, and of faith in his name. Then, as 
to the privilege belonging to this state, we con- 
sult other portions of holy writ, and we find it 
thus described : — " Because ye are sons, God 
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your 
hearts, crying, Abba, Father," • • • • " Ye have 
received the Spirit of adoption." " The Spirit 
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are 
the children of God." 

In reference to the two passages last quoted, 
it may be advisable for the reader, in order to 
convince himself that the apostle does really 
speak of the Holy Spirit of God personally, to 
examine carefully all the former part of the 
eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. 
He will then see sufficient proof, that the Spirit 
of whom St. Paul treats, is not the Spirit in the 
word, as some would explain it, but the Spirit 
in his immediate and direct operations on the 
human mind. He is called, within the compass* 
of a few verses, "The Spirit of God .... 

The Spirit of Christ The Spirit of Him 

who raised up Jesus from the dead." He is 
represented as " dwelling in believers," as en- 
abling them to mortify the deeds of the body, 
as leading and guiding the sons of God. Then, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 49 

in immediate connection with these sayings, (all 
of which plainly refer to the immediate opera- 
tion of the Spirit on the mind,) there occur the 
statements concerning the testimony he gives to 
the believer's adoption. Now, if in all the. 
former part of the chapter, wherever the Spirit 
of God is mentioned, he is represented, by his 
personal and powerful operations, as leading, 
guiding, strengthening, and quickening believ- 
ers, not by the medium of the word, but by his 
own immediate influence ; it seems most natural 
to interpret the loth and 16th verses in the 
same way, and to understand the testimony 
there mentioned as given by the immediate in- 
fluence of the Spirit on the minds of believers. 
If, in almost every previous verse of the chap- 
ter, we are prepared to allow that the Spirit is 
spoken of personally, as operating directly on 
the human mind ; consistency seems to require 
that we should thus interpret the apostle through 
the whole of his sublime account of the Spirit's 
work and offices. In doing this, we are far from 
undervaluing the importance (as we shall pre- 
sently show) of a reference to the written word, 
in the matter of obtaining evidence of our son- 
ship. We only wish it to be understood that, 
in the order of time, this self-examination, with 
the word of God in our hands, must be a sub- 



50 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

sequent and secondary duty. In the nature of 
things, the Spirit's direct testimony must pre- 
cede the evidence derived from " the fruit of 
the Spirit." 

We have further to remark, that the Scrip- 
tures, in speaking of the assurance of salvation 
given to believers, do not confine themselves to 
this phraseology of the Spirit witnessing. They 
speak of the Spirit as sealing believers; a phrase 
which, taken in conjunction with the context, in 
the several instances where it occurs, will ap- 
pear to signify the same thing as the testimony 
of the Spirit, on which we have already dwelt. 
"That we," says the apostle, (Ephes. i, 13,) 
" should be to the praise of his glory who first 
trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, 
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gos- 
pel of your salvation : in whom also, after that 
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy 
Spirit of promise." The same mode of speak- 
ing occurs 2 Cor. i, 21, 22 : " Now he which 
stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath an- 
ointed us, is God ; who hath also sealed us, and 
given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 
It occurs again Ephes. iv, 30 : " Grieve not the 
Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto 
the day of redemption." 

Now, can any one imagine that these be- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 51 

lievers, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 
were destitute of a comfortable assurance of 
their acceptance with God ? The stamp of hea- 
ven was upon them. The impression, too, was 
directly made by the Holy Spirit. It was 
made when they believed — when they trusted 
in Christ. It was made immediately upon their 
believing ; and not, as might by some be erro- 
neously inferred, after the lapse of some con- 
siderable time. The original Greek, of the 
passage in Ephesians, i, 13, is much more defi- 
nite and clear than the translation : — morsvoav- 
reg eacfrpa'yLodrjTe, having believed, ye were sealed. 
In the order of thought, indeed, and in the or- 
der of occurrence, it was " after they believed ;" 
but this does not necessarily imply the lapse of 
any ascertainable portion of time, between the 
act of believing and the privilege of being 
sealed. Believers, thus sealed, must be under- 
stood to be the ascertained property of God; 
for this is the idea conveyed by the affixing 
of a seal. He has received them, he claims 
them, he gives this attestation to the fact that 
they are his. It cannot, either to themselves 
or to any considerate observer, be any longer 
doubtful, among what description of persons 
they are to be classed, nor to whom they be- 
long. 



52 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

Still more to confirm this view of the gospel 
privilege of assurance, there is another term 
employed by the sacred writers, in conjunction 
with the sealing of the Spirit. It is that of 
" the earnest of the Spirit" given to believers in 
their hearts. " He that hath wrought us for 
the self-same thing, is God, who also hath given 
unto us the earnest of the Spirit ; therefore we 
are always confident." 2 Cor. v, 5. "That 
Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of 
our inheritance, until the redemption of the 
purchased possession." Eph. i, 14. The same 
idea is also conveyed by a phrase of St. Paul's, 
(Rom. viii, 23,) " Ourselves .... which have 
the first-fruits of the Spirit." 

The distinction between the two last mention- 
ed modes of presenting the believer's privilege 
in the New Testament is correctly drawn by 
Cruden,in his Concordance, (sub voce Earnest,) 
"Seal and earnest, though they both imply 
assurance, yet they differ thus : — Sealing es- 
pecially refers to the understanding; earnest 
to the affections. Though the seal assures us, 
yet it is not part of the inheritance. But the 
earnest so assures us, that it gives part of the 
inheritance. It works that joy in the heart 
which is a foretaste of heaven, and which the 
saints are filled with there." 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 53 

It is worthy of remark, that the word arr abort, 
rendered "earnest," is originally Hebrew {/p^s] 
and has passed into the Greek and Latin lan- 
guages, J[appaj3(x)v arrhabon,] and in all of them 
retains the same meaning.* It signifies a 
pledge given, binding the party who gives it to 
fulfill conditions involving other and more valua- 
ble gifts, upon the production of the pledge at 
some future day. It refers, therefore, both to 
the present and the future. It denotes a present 
relation, into which the person is taken who 
receives the earnest. He is taken into the di- 
vine family, into such a state that, if he continue 
therein, he shall be everlastingly saved. The 
earnest, therefore, decides the present, absolutely 
and positively. It is a pledge of present favor : 
and it decides the future conditionally; — no 
change being to be apprehended (for none is 
possible) in God ; and the only condition being 
that the pledge or earnest has been retained, 
and can be produced. The Greek writers used 
the term to signify the token of the pledged 
faith of those who were espoused, [6 rbv yafiov 
appdfiuv, the pledge of marriage,'] and this may 

* Its exact meaning seems well defined by Park- 
hurst, " A pledge or earnest, which stands for part of 
the price, and is paid beforehand to confirm the bar- 
gain/' 



64: WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

show us that they considered it as implying both 
a seal of the present, and a pledge of the future. 
Now the Holy Spirit, given to believers, is both 
a seal of present favor, and a pledge of future 
blessings ; and great indeed is the blessedness 
of those who are sealed with the Holy Spirit of 
promise. 

There are other passages of Scripture, almost 
without number, in which, though less directly, 
the subject of the happy state of true believers 
in Christ, with respect to their present filial re- 
lation to God, is adverted to. Perhaps these 
incidental allusions may, to some minds, appear 
of equal, if not superior force to those which we 
have adduced as treating on this subject more 
directly. 

Believers, for example, "rejoice in hope." 
But this must, of course, suppose that they per- 
ceive the clearness of their title to the joys of 
the celestial kingdom, and have a comfortable 
persuasion of their individual interest in it. 

Believers, as described in the New Testa- 
ment, have "the love of God shed abroad in 
their hearts," which, according to the intima- 
tions of Scripture, could not, we apprehend, be 
the case without a revelation of God's pardon- 
ing love to them : " We love him because he 
first loved us." 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 55 

Believers, after the model of the New Testa- 
ment, "know that the Son of God is come," 
and that they " are in Him that is true, even in 
his Son Jesus Christ," 1 John v, 20 ; a mode 
of speaking which does not admit of our suppos- 
ing that any doubt could remain on their minds, 
as to their interest hi his redeeming work. 

Again, — their bodies are the temples of Deity. 
This is a truth of which they are supposed to be 
fully apprised : " What ! know ye not that your 
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is 
in you, which ye have of God?" 1 Cor. vi, 19. 
If, then, a true believer be in all cases a temple 
of the Holy Ghost, which blessed Spirit dwells 
in him; how can it be otherwise than that he 
should fill the temple in which he dwells with 
glorious light? Where God dwells and mani- 
fests his presence, the believer must surely walk 
in the light of his countenance. 

Further, — believers are uniformly spoken of 
as knowing that they u have in heaven a better 
and enduring substance." Heb. x, 34. " Be- 
loved, now are we the sons of God," — "we 
know that when he shall appear, we shall be like 
him." No shadow of doubt or uncertainty ap- 
pears to have rested upon the minds of those 
first believers. They walked in the light ; and 
what was Christian privilege then, must be sup- 



56 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

posed to be Christian privilege now* Yet more : 
" The love of Christ constrained them/' exerted 
a sweet, powerful, resistless influence over them, 
as the word avvex^h constraineth, seems to im- 
ply. Now it is difficult to comprehend how this 
effect could be produced upon the first followers 
of the Redeemer, unless they had a clear per- 
ception of his love to them on the one hand, and 
unless that love, made known to them by the 
revealing Spirit, had called forth a reciprocal 
affection on their part toward him. 

To sum up the whole ; — from the incidental 
notices of the experience of believers contained 
in the New Testament, it may safely be conclud- 
ed, that their experience of religion was of a 
truly happy character. Unto them, unto all 
that believed, Christ was precious. Their joy 
in him, though now they saw him not, was un- 
speakable and full of glory. They stood fast in 
the liberty with which Christ had made them 
free. They had received the atonement. They 
looked with joy to the promised coming of the 
Saviour, and they looked for everlasting life 
with him in heaven. Let us not suppose that 
anything short of this can be deemed to be the 
genuine experience of the sons of God. At any 
point below this we must not stop, if we wish to 
be either safe or happy. A religion which ban- 



WITNESS OF THE SFIPwIT. 57 

ishes painful fear is what we need, and that to 
which we should aspire. Our gracious God 
would certainly not have us to remain in doubt 
as to his love toward us, nor languid and cold in 
our love to him. This filial confidence toward 
God, which the world calls and always has called 
enthusiasm, but which is the spring and source 
of all that is vital in religion, can be wrought 
in the- soul only by the inward revelation of 
the Spirit of God. For this testimony of the 
Spirit let us look with earnest desire ; and plead 
for it in the exercise of faith in the promises, 
until we can say with one whose conversion was 
very clearly marked, " It pleased God to reveal 
his Son in me." Gal. i, 15, 16. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, AS TO THE 
MODE IN WHICH IT IS GIVEN. 

At this point, it is not very unnatural that 
the question should present itself, — How, and in 
what manner, and with what attendant circum- 
stances, is the attestation of the Spirit to a be- 
liever's sonship usually given ? This will pro- 
bably be found to be the most difficult part of 



58 9 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

our task to accomplish satisfactorily; but it is 
necessary that we should attempt it, if for no 
other reason, yet for this, that we may clear 
away all ground for imputing enthusiastic delu- 
sions to those who conscientiously hold this 
Scriptural doctrine. 

It has been frequently noticed, that some of 
the most vital and necessary truths of the Scrip- 
ture lie near to the perilous brink of error ; 
and, if the guards adequately provided for the 
purpose of safety be neglected, may easily be 
perverted to fatal consequences. The doctrine, 
for instance, of justification by faith, has been 
pushed to the extreme of making void the moral 
law, — although, if taught scripturally, there is 
not the least tendency in the doctrine itself to 
lead to this result. We do not deny that, in like 
manner, the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit 
may, without care, be perverted to the intro- 
ducing of real enthusiasm ; although, when 
taught with the Scriptural guards which we 
shall adduce, there can be no danger of this 
fatal mistake. 

Let no one, however, suppose that words are 
competent to describe adequately the mode of 
the divine operation on the soul of man. The 
Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures has not 
thought fit to enter into any formal description 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 59 

of the method in which he produces the joyous 
persuasion in the minds of believers, that they 
are adopted into the family of God. Our ac- 
count of this gracious act of infinite mercy will, 
therefore, be partly of a negative character, and 
partly it will be derived, by way of inference, 
from what is plainly, though incidentally, taught 
in various parts of the New Testament. 

First, — This testimony is not given by a voice 
from heaven. Herein it differs from those inti- 
mations which the Scriptures assure us were 
given at various times to holy men and inspired 
prophets. It has nothing miraculous about it. 
Miracles were commonly intended to arrest and 
fix the attention of a careless and indifferent 
world upon something in the divine working 
which it was important that mankind should 
carefully observe. Our Lord's divine sonship, 
for instance, was thus attested by a voice from 
heaven. Among the many who came to John 
to be baptized at the river Jordan, was Jesus 
the Messiah; and John hesitated, as well he 
might, whether it would be seemly for him, a 
mere mortal, to apply the water of baptism to 
the sacred person of the incarnate Deity. His 
scruples being, however, overcome, he consent- 
ed to baptize him ; but on his ascending from 
the water, John saw the Spirit of God descend- 



60 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

ing like a dove and lighting upon him ; and a 
voice from heaven was heard, saying, This is 
my beloved Son. 

If God had seen meet to attest the sonship of 
his adopted children in the same manner as he 
gave witness to that of his own and beloved 
Son, he could doubtless have done so. But he 
is a being of infinite reason, and does nothing 
needlessly. In the case of Christ, it was im- 
portant that the attestation should be given in 
this public manner, that all around might hear, 
and that all might believe. That voice came 
not for his sake, but for theirs to whom it was 
important that sufficient evidence of the Mes- 
siahship should be given. For the Saviour him- 
self it was not necessary. No such public at- 
testation is necessary in the case of believers, 
and none such do we anticipate. 

2. Neither, in point of fact, is this communi- 
cation made to the soul by any voice at all ad- 
dressed to the senses ; although doubtless it may 
sometimes be so vividly communicated, as to 
render it difficult to discern between the voice 
of the Spirit addressed to the spiritual sense of 
hearing, (if this figurative language may be al- 
lowed,) and the utterance of the same things to 
the outward ear. 

If believers have sometimes spoken of hear- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 61 

ing the voice of God, and of having the pro- 
mises of the gospel spoken to them, it must not 
be forgotten that the Scripture also speaks of 
the Spirit making intercession in the saints — 
of the Spirit crying in their hearts, Abba, Fa- 
ther. We must not indiscriminately condemn 
all such figurative language as improper, while, 
at the same time, it is important to distinguish 
between what is figurative and what is literal. 
And further ; if instances should occur, where 
even what is inwardly revealed by the Spirit is 
mistaken, on account of its vividness and force, 
for a communication made to the outward senses, 
we must again recollect that similar instances 
appear to have occurred, as recorded in the 
Bible. 

When the Saviour addressed to the woman 
of Samaria, at Jacob's well, a few words in re- 
ference to one part of her sinful conduct, the 
Spirit of God appears to have spoken abundantly 
more to her conscience, and that in so powerful 
a manner that she imagined these internal ad- 
monitions to have been addressed to her sense 
of hearing : " Come, see a man which told me 
all things that ever I did." Nor is it at all un- 
usual, we believe, for the mind, in certain con- 
ditions of deep and intense feeling, to find it 
difficult to distinguish between what is power- 



62 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

fully impressed by the divine Spirit on the heart, 
and what is actually addressed to the outward 
ear. But still, we wish it to be clearly under- 
stood that the doctrine of the witness of the Spi- 
rit by no means includes any enthusiastic expecta- 
tion of voices audibly addressed to the believer, 
nor the occurrence of anything that is, properly 
speaking, miraculous. 

3. Neither do we speak of a testimony com- 
municated by a supernatural vision. All, there- 
fore, which has been spoken at various times by 
zealous opponents against the doctrine of the 
witness of the Spirit, on the ground that we rely 
too much on visions and voices, is quite wide of 
the mark. For we lay no stress on visions nor 
voices at all ; and encourage no expectation of 
them. They would add nothing to the evidence, 
even supposing they were given. The witness 
of the Spirit is something entirely distinct from 
them, and of a different nature. 

That all accounts of appearances which are 
supernatural — or that cannot be accounted for 
on any known principles and laws — should be 
received with caution, is a sound dictate of 
Christian prudence. But, we are not going to 
lay it down as a principle, that all such accounts 
are at once to be rejected as incredible. There 
are more and stranger things in the world than 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 63 

are dreamed of in the world's shallow and short- 
sighted philosophy. There have been, as we 
must take the liberty of believing, instances 
of what may be termed a divine and superna- 
tural vision* Few will deny this who have 
read, with any candor, the Life of Colonel Gar- 
diner, written by Doctor Doddridge. The colo- 
nel was not an enthusiast, nor a visionary. He 
was a man of strong and commanding intellect ; 
sober in his views, and of a deep and rational 
piety. But that life of piety, which was uni- 
form and without a stain, dates its commence- 
ment from a remarkable manifestation made, a3 
far as he could judge, to his senses, of the Sa- 
viour on the cross. 

The result was, that a gay, trifling votary of 
worldly pleasure, became a pious and devoted 
follower of the Saviour. All the current of his 
life was entirely changed. The fruits produced 
by this mysterious appearance were holy and 
excellent ; and if anything of this extraordinary 
character may be judged of it by its results, then 
was this not from nature, not from beneath, but 
from above. 

We would not say but that the favor of God 
may have been manifested, in some rare in- 
stances, with attendant circumstances not very 
dissimilar to those which we have adverted to 
5 



64 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

as occurring in the case of Colonel Gardiner. 
But we wish it to be understood, that even in 
those instances, no one who is wise will lay- 
any stress on what was visionary in the commu- 
nication, or look upon it in any other light than 
as a circumstance altogether extraneous to the 
great point to be decided. It is not itself the 
witness of the Spirit. It is, properly speak- 
ing, no part of the evidence ; and neither adds 
to, nor detracts from, its credibility. Should 
the witne&s of the Spirit, therefore, be thus 
given, it would not be the visionary repre- 
sentation accompanying it which would give it 
any part of its value. It would not be either 
the more or the less certain — -it would not claim 
either more or less of confidence for being so 
accompanied. 

We thus wish to/ avoid, in treating on this 
interesting subject, all modes of speaking, against 
which there may be any reasonable objection. 
In addition, we would lay aside, for the present, 
all figurative language, and neither speak of 
the divine testimony as a voice, nor as an im- 
pression, nor as an inspiration ; although, on or- 
dinary occasions, each of these modes of speech 
may be allowable. But, in the plainest and 
most literal terms, we would define the witness 
of the Spirit to be 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 65 

"A SATISFACTORY AND JOYFUL PERSUA- 
SION, PRODUCED BY THE HOLY GhOST IN 
THE MIND OF A BELIE VER, THAT HE IS NOW 
A CHILD OF God." 

This definition is from the pen of the late 
Rev. E. Grindrod,* and it would be difficult, 
perhaps, to find a better. In reference to it, 
we may remark the following particulars : — 

1. It assumes, of course, that this " persua- 
sion" is produced by the direct and immediate 
operation of the Spirit of God upon the mind of 
a believer. It speaks of the influence of spirit 
on spirit, and recognizes no media through which 
the intelligence is conveyed. The persuasion 
itself has reference to a fact of which the Spirit 
of God alone, who searcheth all things, can be 
cognizant. It is, that the Eternal Father has 
adopted us, and made- us his children, in the 
exercise of his abundant grace, through the 
atonement of his Son. And now, the Holy 
Ghost, in his office of the Spirit of adoption, 
attests this to us, that we may know — distinctly 
and clearly know — the things which are freely 
given to us of God. 

2. The definition which we have given is cor- 
rect, if it be understood to describe the witness 

* Wesley an Methodist Magazine, January, 1825, 



66 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

of the Spirit, as it takes place immediately upon 
a sinner's free j ustification. But it is less correct, 
if it be taken as an account of the habitual enjoy- 
ment of this blessing by believers in their sub- 
sequent walk. In the first instance, it must, of 
course, be the witness of the Spirit to our spirits. 
But subsequently, in the habitual experience of 
the believer, it is more correctly expressed in 
the language of St. Paul, as the witness of the 
Spirit with our spirit. It then becomes the 
joint and concurrent testimony of the Spirit of 
God with ours. 

This distinction, which w r e take to be of very 
great importance, has not, perhaps, been suffi- 
ciently attended to. We shall have occasion, in 
a subsequent chapter, to enter on the elucida- 
tion of it more at large. For the present, it may 
suffice to say, that the Scripture plainly recognizes 
the witness of our own spirit, as well as the wit- 
ness of the Spirit of God. The former and the 
latter are conjoined in the completeness and 
plenitude of this blessing, as believers are re- 
presented to live and walk in the enjoyment 
of it. But, in its first communication it is quite 
distinct and apart from any evidence of our own 
spirit, which to that moment has been destitute 
of all the marks of the sons of God, and has, 
therefore, no evidence to give. The whole of 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 67 

the evidence is, therefore, in the first instance, 
ascribed to the Spirit of God. 

3. Still, it may be said, this definition does 
not reach the point desired. It does not explain 
how the Spirit of God produces this assurance 
and persuasion of sonship in the mind of the 
believer. It certainly does not. And where does 
the Scripture attempt to explain any of the opera- 
tions of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man? 
These operations are frequently referred to in the 
book of God, as being admonitory, corrective, 
comforting, sanctifying. But no attempt is made 
to show the modus operandi, the exact method 
in which his most gracious results are produced. 
The definition we have adopted assumes, that it 
is by the Spirit's direct and immediate influence 
exerted on the mind. And when we have said 
this, we have said almost all we certainly know. 
We have sufficient reasons for avoiding any 
attempt at describing, minutely, how the divine 
testimony is borne : — 

First, — Because, as to the circumstances 
attending it, the mode of the Spirit's operation 
is greatly diversified. As the Spirit of adoption, 
he is not confined nor restricted to any one par- 
ticular method of working. ■ There is the same 
diversity and variety in this, as in all the other 
operations of the divine Agent. The conversion 



&8 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

of the soul is brought about in ways the most 
dissimilar. Scarcely are two cases in all re- 
spects alike. Ponder the records contained in 
the Acts of the Apostles, and you are imme- 
diately struck with this. You perceive the 
eunuch enlightened while riding in his chariot; 
he patiently reads the Holy Scriptures. You 
perceive Saul of Tarsus spending three days and 
nights in darkness and distress, after that won- 
drous vision seen by him on his way to Damas- 
cus. While, on the other hand, you read of 
Lydia, that the Lord gently opened her heart 
to receive the truth. Now, as in conversion 
itself, considered generally, the operations of the 
divine Agent are varied in different cases ; so 
in the witness of the Spirit, which is intimately 
connected with conversion, the same diversity 
will be found to occur. If, therefore, we should 
proceed to state any definite method in which 
the Spirit may be expected to act, we might pos- 
sibly lead the penitent seeker of salvation into 
mistake. Should we say, " The Spirit of adop- 
tion works in this way or in that," the result would 
probably be, that in no other way, than in the one 
which we had indicated, would the earnest and 
praying soul expect the knowledge of salvation. 
Whereas, the right method in which to wait for 
this blessing is, to be willing to receive it in any 



WITNESS OF THE SPI.EUT. 69 

way in which it may please the divine Spirit to 
communicate it; and with whatever attendant 
circumstances it may be invested. 

A second reason why we do not enter on any 
more formal attempt to describe the manner in 
which this divine testimony is given is, that Jesus 
Christ appears to have admonished us that all 
such attempts must necessarily fail. Comparing 
the manner of the Spirit's operation upon the 
mind of man to the inexplicable motion of the 
currents of air, the Saviour says, (John iii, 8,) 
" The wind bloweth where it listeth ;" that is, 
with great diversity, both in its direction and its 
force ; — " and thou hearest the sound thereof." 
The sense of hearing assures thee of the fact. 
Thou hast every kind of evidence to convince 
thee that so it is. Thou feelest its effect on thy 
own person ; thou beholdest it on all around thee. 
" But whence it cometh, and whither it goeth," 
— how it rises — why it falls — what are the hid- 
den causes that produce the wondrous diversity 
of its operations — this thou canst not tell. It is 
all mystery. " So is every one that is born of 
the Spirit." 

In this striking comparison used by the Sa- 
viour, it seems to be clearly intimated, that the 
divine operation upon the spirit of man may not 
be the less real and certain, although it be inex- 



70 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

plicable. Still further, we should infer, that with 
a uniformity in the result there may be united 
great diversity in the attendant circumstances. 
This assurance of the present favor of God may 
be given, for instance, under the preaching of the 
word. " Faith cometh by hearing ;" and, not 
unfrequently, we apprehend, it is while listening 
to the announcement of the gospel, that the soul 
believes and becomes entitled to its benefits ; and 
the Holy Ghost immediately affords his testi- 
mony, and seals the spirit as the property of 
God. 

Or the witness of the Spirit may be obtained 
while reading the Bible, and faith, as in the case 
of the Ethiopian eunuch, may come by reading 
as well as by hearing. Or it may result from 
the encouraging advices and admonitions of a 
friend. Or it may even spring up in the soul 
apparently apart from all outward means. It 
may be given in the silence of midnight mus- 
ings, or amid the activity of mid-day engage- 
ments. 

Whenever, or in what circumstances soever, 
this divine testimony is obtained, it is given by 
the Spirit of God "opening the eyes of our 
understanding," or, according to another Scrip- 
tural phrase, taking away the veil from the 
heart. Immediately, under the influence of his 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 71 

sacred illumination, we see what we could not 
see before, although it is plainly written on the 
page of inspiration, that he 

*• Who did for every sinner die, 
Hath surely died for me." 

" Then, only then, we feel 
Our interest in his blood ; 
And cry with joy unspeakable, 
Thou art my Lord, my God." 

But, after all, the manner in which this satis- 
factory persuasion is wrought in the soul still 
remains a mystery. Not only is it impossible to 
explain it in words, but it cannot even be com- 
prehended by our thought. And, in this respect, 
it stands on the same grounds as the other direct 
operations of the Spirit of God upon the human 
mind. 

This is our answer to those who feel inclined 
to object to the views given above, on the ground 
that they include the belief of a direct influence 
of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man. 
" You believe," say they, " in a new inspiration, 
— an inspiration additional to and apart from 
that of the Holy Scriptures." Our reply is, — 
We believe in no inspiration at all similar to 
that which was vouchsafed to holy men who 
wrote the Scriptures of truth. We do not be- 



72 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

lieve in the necessity, nor in the present pos- 
sibility, of any inspiration for the purpose of 
adding to, or of confirming, what is already 
written. The volume of inspiration, we are 
aware, is closed and sealed ; and no man must 
add to the contents of that book, but at his peril. 
Yet it follows not that we are forbidden to be- 
lieve that the Holy Spirit directly influences the 
minds of men. If you renounce all belief of 
this, and condemn the notion under the general 
phrase of a new inspiration, do you not (we 
would ask) condemn yourselves ? If you are 
sincerely and truly Christians, you believe, and 
must necessarily believe, that a direct influence 
of the Holy Spirit in the production of the en- 
tire inward change is exerted upon the human 
mind. You believe, for instance, that the Spirit 
of God reproves and convinces of sin ; that he 
works in the heart of the penitent a full and 
complete persuasion of the number, and great- 
ness, and aggravations of his sins; — that the 
same divine Agent gives such a perception of 
danger, as produces alarm and trembling anx- 
iety ; — that he works in the soul a sense of 
helplessness and bondage, under which the peni- 
tent exclaims, " O wretched man that I am, who 
shall deliver me?" that he produces a godly 
sorrow for sin ; — in a word, that the whole of 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 73 

that mysterious process by which the soul turns 
again to God, and which we term repentance, 
proceeds entirely from the operation of the Holy 
Spirit of God. 

If this is believed, (and it must be so by all 
who believe in a change of heart, — by all who 
acknowledge the necessity of conversion,) then 
the point is conceded, that there is a direct in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit upon the human 
mind. If you believe that he maketh sorrow- 
ful, it surely is not unreasonable to believe that 
he maketh glad. The same divine Spirit who 
for salutary purposes wounds the soul, can also 
pour in the oil of joy. If he gives the know- 
ledge of our guilt, we may surely believe that 
he also gives the knowledge of its removal. 

We cannot but think that there is a want of 
consistency — a shrinking from carrying out their 
own principles — on the part of those who deny 
that there is any direct operation of the Holy 
Spirit in attesting the believer's sonship. Up 
to that point, they have insisted on the neces- 
sity of such influence ; — they have, with the most 
undoubting certainty, taught that it exists. They 
have represented it as enlightening the under- 
standing, as bowing the will, as renewing the 
affections. They believe that there is an influ- 
ence upon the minds of all good men, leading 



V4 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

their steps, forming their character, admonish- 
ing, strengthening, and comforting them. Now, 
as these points of belief are all established by 
sufficient Scriptural authority, so, on authority 
equally plain and undoubted, is the doctrine 
established, that one especial office of the third 
person in the Trinity is that of the Spirit of 
adoption. Nothing more direct or immediate 
is contended for in the latter case than in the 
former. If it is reasonable to believe, that in 
reproving, convincing, and converting, the Spi- 
rit's influence on the mind is plainly taught in 
the Scripture, it cannot be unreasonable to be- 
lieve, that in comforting us, and sealing our 
adoption, the same influence is exerted, and in 
a method substantially the same. 

This may, perhaps, be met by the observa- 
tion, that in convincing, reproving, guiding, and 
in all the other operations ascribed to him, the 
Spirit acts through the medium of the word. The 
difference (it may be said) between the two 
opinions, is, that the one speaks of the influence 
of the Spirit as being directly upon the mind, 
and the other represents it as being through the 
medium of the Scriptures. The point which 
distinguishes between Wesleyans and others, 
(it may be alledged,) is, that the former deny 
what the others affirm, namely, — that the opera- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 75 

tions of the Spirit are through the medium of 
the inspired word of God. 

We beg leave to say, that this representation 
is quite incorrect. We do not deny that the 
Spirit of God acts, commonly, through the me- 
dium of the word. By this we mean, that he 
applies the Scripture to the heart — opens the 
eyes of the understanding to perceive its mean- 
ing and its force— makes the sword of the 
Spirit sharp in its edge, and resistless in its 
stroke — that by this means he reveals the suit- 
ableness and glory of Christ, and guides, and 
admonishes, and comforts the people of God. 
He is " the Spirit of truth," and he influences 
the understanding through the medium of divine 
revealed truth. But even this supposes an im- 
mediate and direct influence of the Holy Ghost 
upon the mind. For you cannot surely sup- 
pose, that it is the word which does all this. It 
is the Spirit that, by the word, enlightens and 
converts ; and it is also true, that he can act 
without it. In fact, by whatever instrument- 
ality, or through whatever medium it may 
please him to work, his operation is immediate 
and direct. We cannot conceive of an indirect 
operation of the divine Spirit. It is either the 
influence of the Spirit exerted on spirit, or it is 
nothing at all. 



76 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

Leaving then, here, the mode of the Spirit's 
working shrouded in that mysteriousness which 
envelops alike all his wondrous operations ; we 
may go on to say, that the immediate effects of 
his communicating to the soul the persuasion of 
its acceptance with God are more easily ascer- 
tained. These are diversified indeed; but as 
they are frequently alluded to in Scripture, we 
shall have a clear and sure light to guide us in 
the investigation. 

1. The witness of the Spirit first becomes 
manifest in the removal of the sense of guilt 
In endeavoring to trace the outlines of this in- 
teresting period in the believer's experience, we 
fix first upon the removal of that heavy burden 
under which he has perhaps long labored. 

This is a point which stands out most promi- 
nently to view. This is a particular which will 
be long remembered; or, we might more pro- 
perly say, which will never be forgotten. All 
his sins were set against him in battle array — all 
summoned, as it were, by the convincing Spirit 
out of the gloom of past forgetfulness, to appear 
at once and depose against him their fearful ac- 
cusations, with a clearness and force neither to 
be evaded nor denied. A conscious and inde- 
scribable sense of the wrath of God oppressed 
and weighed down his soul. It was (to use a 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 77 

striking Scriptural figure) the arrow of the Al- 
mighty, which drinketh up the spirit. Fears of 
future judgment, fears of hell, and a tormenting 
fear of death, as the forerunner of the whole; 
these were his sad companions through many a 
sunless day, and through many a sleepless and 
anxious night. 

But the time of deliverance arrived. The 
clouds broke asunder, and gradually revealed 
the dawn of the morning. Or, this dark night 
gave place, it may be in an instant, to the meri- 
dian brightness of day. The sense of guilt was 
gone. The feeling of exposure to the wrath of 
God was happily removed by an act of trust in 
the atonement. The first effect of having " re- 
ceived the atonement," is to have received also 
the Spirit of adoption attesting our pardon. 

2. Then peace with God is the immediate re- 
sult. This is a fruit of the Spirit immediately 
consequent upon justification ; and the Holy 
Ghost, in bearing his testimony to the one, pro- 
duces the other. How inestimably precious is 
this calm composure of the soul, — this quiet of 
conscience, — this resting of the spirit as in the 
arms of the Saviour, perfectly free from all 
alarms ! This peace of God may truly be said 
to pass all human understanding. None of the 
ordinary principles of mental reasoning or inves- 



78 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

tigation can explain it or account for it. Plac- 
ing all its hopes upon the enduring foundation 
of God's revealed mercy, — looking to the cross, 
— and persuaded by the witnessing Spirit of its 
interest in the meritorious death of the Saviour, 
the soul finds a settled peace, an indescribable 
sense of safety ; — dismisses all its fears, and says, 
" My beloved is mine, and I am his :" " I will 
fear no evil, for thou art with me." 

3. More than peace attends this happy change. 
Joy in the Holy Ghost is the immediate result. 
The deliverance appears so great, the escape 
from eternal misery so wonderful, that joy 
springs up in the soul and inspires the lips with 
praise. "In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, 
I will praise thee, for though thou wast angry 
with me, thy anger is turned away." It is a 
joy more elevated than aught which has its 
source on earth. It is "unspeakable and (de- 
doijaofievrj) full of glory." Celestial in its ori- 
gin, radiant with the light of heaven, it is near 
akin to the joy which blessed spirits feel. 

Of this joy, in a greater or less degree, (for it 
may be various in different individuals,) every 
one blessed with the witness of the Spirit is a 
partaker. And so strikingly marked are the 
peace and joy which are inseparable from this 
witness, that in the familiar communications of 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 79 

Christians with each other, mention is more fre- 
quently made of these joyous results than of the 
witness itself, which is the source of them. To 
find peace, to be made happy, to be able to re- 
joice, are familiar phrases which ordinary Chris- 
tians use to set forth this inestimable Scriptural 
privilege. By a figure of speech, — a pardona- 
ble metonymy, — the effect is dwelt upon, and 
the cause is less adverted to. It must still, how- 
ever, be understood, that neither this peace, nor 
this joy, nor this happiness, could subsist with- 
out the testimony of the Holy Spirit which pro- 
duces them, 

4. There is immediately wrought in the soul 
(at least this is often the case, and especially 
where the transition has been sudden) the con- 
sciousness of a great and important change, — a 
sense, as it were, of new existence, — a feeling 
of new life, which, transferring itself to the 
things around, gives to all things the appearance 
of having been regenerated. The sun appears 
to shine more brightly ; the face of nature is 
arrayed in smiles, and all things take their cha- 
racter and color from the happy state of the soul 
within. Old things are passed away. All things 
are become hew. A new creation has taken 
place which has given a new aspect to all nature. 

And here we might notice the effects of those 
6 



80 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

feelings of love and delight toward God which 
are immediately called forth in the soul which 
is now assured of his favor. But on this sub- 
ject we propose to dwell somewhat more at 
large in a subsequent chapter, where we shall 
have to show how the witness of the Spirit 
stands inseparably connected with all that is 
vital and important in religion. We have here 
merely mentioned a few of the more visible re- 
sults which ordinarily present themselves, where 
the Spirit bears witness to the adoption of the 
soul into the family of God. We set out with 
the attempt to explain the mode in which this 
witness is borne ; but finding no encouragement 
from the Holy Scriptures to carry out these in- 
vestigations, we have been led to notice some 
of its attendant signs. The mode of the Spirit's 
witness is, in a great degree, hidden from human 
sight. But it is known by its results, and the 
signs following it are infallible. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 81 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CONFIRMATION OF THE SPIRIT'S TESTIMO- 
NY BY THE WITNESS OF OUR OWN SPIRIT. 

We adverted, in the close of the last chapter, 
to some of the happy consequences which im- 
mediately result from the testimony of the Spirit 
to the believer's adoption. In the present chap- 
ter we are about to show that these fruits of the 
Spirit are in proof of the genuineness of the 
testimony. They are the tests by which it is 
confirmed. They constitute, in themselves, a 
joint and concurrent testimony; which, with 
some propriety, has been called the testimony 
of our own spirit, — as the Scripture appears to 
recognize the testimony of our own conscience 
as having some part in giving us assurance to- 
ward God. 

To every careful reader of the New Testa- 
ment it must have appeared that, subsequently 
to the communication of the Spirit as the Spirit 
of adoption, and after he has shed the love of 
God abroad in the heart, and imparted the Sa- 
viour's legacy of peace, and produced an un- 
speakable joy in the soul, there is a confirmation 
of his testimony, derived from the existence of 



82 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

those graces and excellences which he alone can 
produce. 

If it be asked whether it is more proper to 
speak of the witness of the Spirit to our spirit, 
or of the witness of the Spirit with our spirit, 
(which is the apostle's mode of speaking in Rom. 
viii, 16,) we reply that both terms are proper. 
But it must be born in mind, that they each re- 
fer to a distinct and different period of the be- 
liever's experience. The witness of the Spirit, 
when given in the first moment of our justifica- 
tion, is a witness to our spirit. There is, as yet, 
no concurrent evidence from any gracious dis- 
positions found in us ; for those graces do not 
yet exist. The Spirit testifies to our free justi- 
fication as ungodly persons ; who, till the mo- 
ment of our pardon, were destitute of all good. 
The testimony of the Spirit, therefore, must be, 
in the first instance, independent of all other 
evidence. It stands apart. Not so in the sub- 
sequent experience of the believer. When 
time has been given for the production of the 
filial dispositions, and of the graces peculiar to 
the children of God, — then these latter become 
so many parts of the evidence of our sonship. 
They are joined to it, and confirm it ; and the 
witness of the Spirit, as an habitual enjoyment 
and privilege of Christians, is the conjoint tes- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 83 

timony of the Spirit of God and of our own 
spirit. 

This distinction which we have endeavored 
to point out, between a testimony given to our 
spirits and a testimony borne concurrently with 
our spirits, is plainly indicated in the New Tes- 
tament. Of the former, St. Paul speaks in the 
Epistle to the Galatians, iv, 6. God sends the 
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, because we 
are sons, and as soon as the act of divine adop- 
tion has taken place ; and immediately the soul, 
without further evidence, without reasoning, 
without inference, but purely as the spontane- 
ous result of the direct evidence afforded by the 
Holy Ghost, cries out in delighted assurance, 
Abba, Father. 

But in the parallel passage of Romans, (viii, 
16,) the apostle appears to speak of the same 
privilege in its mature character; as the be- 
liever lives and walks in the enjoyment of it. 
There the witness of the divine Spirit stands 
not alone. It is accompanied by the testimony 
of our own spirit. The Spirit of God bears 
witness with, together with, the spirit of the be- 
liever: — the meaning of which must be, not 
only that he bears this testimony at the same 
time, but also to the same fact. 

Different indeed, essentially different, must 



84 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

be the witness of our own spirit from the kind 
of testimony afforded by the Spirit of God, as 
will appear when we come more fully to ex- 
plain wherein it consists. But still it is evi- 
dence to establish the same point. The apostle's 
term, gyfifiaprvpeG), " beareth witness with," is 
the very term which was used in the Greek 
language to denote a concurrence of testimony, 
when more than one witness testified to the 
same thing; and, as a plurality of witnesses 
was usually exhibited in courts of justice, 
those who were joined in giving testimony to 
the same point were called, avfifiagrvQeg^ joint 
witnesses.* 

This matter has been treated by Mr. Wesley, 
(Sermons, vol. i, pages 85, 93, &c.,) with a 
fullness which leaves little to be desired. It 
deserves here, however, to be noted, that be- 
tween the publication of his first and second 
sermon on the Witness of the Spirit twenty 
years elapsed. So that the second sermon must, 
in all fairness, be taken to contain his mature 
and deliberate convictions on this important sub- 
ject. And should there be any apparent dis- 
crepancy between these two discourses, — (it 
will, we are persuaded, be little more than ap- 

* See some further observations in proof of this, un- 
der Note A, Appendix. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 85 

parent,) — the propriety of interpreting the first 
sermon by the second will immediately appear ; 
as well as the propriety of giving the first place, 
in point of authority, to that which appears 
second in point of time. Twenty years of the 
life of so great a man, — at a period, too, when 
his faculties were in their full vigor, and during 
which period the doctrine was undergoing per- 
petual discussion ; — twenty years of serious de- 
liberation, on so interesting a point, render this 
second sermon of Mr. Wesley a very important 
document; and we feel inclined to take it as 
containing his mature views on one of the most 
vital doctrines which he, as a minister, felt him- 
self called upon to proclaim. 
- In the first of these two discourses he ap- 
pears not fully to have made up his mind as to 
whether the apostle, in the sixteenth verse of 
the eighth chapter to the Romans, speaks of 
more than one witness ; namely, that of the 
Spirit of God. He thought it might be allow- 
able to render the passage, " beareth witness to 
our spirit ;" supposing that the preposition, aw, 
might mean, at the same time. But, to use his 
own words, "after twenty years' further con- 
sideration," the conclusion at which he arrived 
is thus expressed: — "It is manifest here are 
two witnesses mentioned, who, together, testify 



86 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the same thing ; — the Spirit of God, and our 
own spirit. The late bishop of London, in his 
sermon on this text, seems astonished that any 
one can doubt of this, which appears upon the 
very face of the words." 

We are satisfied of the entire correctness of 
this conclusion ; and shall here proceed on the 
conviction, that the witness of our awn spirit is 
always, in the ordinary experience of believers, 
superadded to, and conjoined with, the divine 
testimony communicated by the Spirit of God. 

What then are we to understand by the wit- 
ness of our own spirit ? It is this. The Holy 
Ghost, in the sacred Scriptures, has laid down 
certain marks of the children of God. By care- 
ful self-examination we ascertain that we pos- 
sess those Scriptural marks of sonship. The 
inference is then correctly and easily drawn, 
that the gracious act of divine adoption has 
taken place with reference to ourselves. 

It is, therefore, plainly of the first import- 
ance that we should rightly ascertain what are 
those marks of filial relationship to God which 
are drawn from the Scriptures of truth. We 
open the New Testament on the First Epistle of 
St. John, and, simply as a specimen, by way of 
showing how easily those marks are discovered 
and applied, we take from that interesting por- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 87 

tion of Scripture the distinguishing qualities of 
the children of God, as they are mentioned by 
St. John. They are partly negative, and partly 
of a positive character. 

1. " He that is born of God sinneth not," — 
that is, he does not sin by the commission of 
outward acts of transgression. He has obtained 
a victory over the power of evil. That which 
formerly led him captive, and tyrannized over 
him, has lost all its power and control. He has 
obtained, by the grace of Christ, a victory such 
as philosophy never achieved, such as was 
never obtained by poor helpless humanity, ex- 
cept through this divinely appointed medium. 
The faith which he has exercised in the atone- 
ment of the Son of God, for the justification of 
his person, has brought not only a deliverance 
from guilt, but power also to subdue sin, to cast 
off its yoke, and trample upon its usurped au- 
thority. And whereas he was formerly con- 
tinually yielding to sin against his better judg- 
ment, and notwithstanding his firmest resolves, 
— he now finds the power imparted to resist all 
sin, and to triumph over the strongest tempta- 
tions. The promise is indubitably fulfilled in 
him, " Sin shall not have dominion over you, 
for ye are not under the law, but under grace." 

2. Another criterion of a negative character, 



05 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

applied by St. John, is the absence of the love 
of the world. " If any man love the world, the 
love of the Father is not in him." "Where the 
love of the Father is, the love of the world is 
excluded. And to decide on this point, as well 
as on many others, the voice of conscience must 
be listened to. Do I so love the world as to 
seek my happiness from it ? Do I strive for its 
possessions, with any other aim than to do good 
with them ? Do I seek its applause, or shrink 
from its censure, so as to be influenced, in any 
part of my duty, by this motive ? Should I feel 
unhappy, if all its glory and all its attractions 
were for ever withdrawn from my view ? There 
are a few searching questions of this kind which, 
by the answers to them that conscience would 
suggest, might afford us light in reference to the 
inquiry, whether we love the world in the sense 
in which the apostle has used the word. It is 
a matter of the highest importance to be de- 
cided aright : for the test applied by St. John 
is absolutely exclusive. No man must suppose 
that he can have in his heart the love of the 
world and the love of the Father at the same 
time. 

3. It would, further, be sufficient to exclude 
any one from all title to be deemed a child of 
God, if hatred were cherished in his heart to- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 89 

ward any of his brethren. " He that hateth his 
brother abideth in death." No unkind feeling 
can permanently dwell in the hearts of those 
whom God has adopted. They cannot hate the 
un worthiest of God's creatures ; much less a 
Christian brother. They will pity and pray for 
those who love them not ; but the love which 
has been shown to themselves, forbids them to 
hate others. They may often differ in judg- 
ment, they may be dissimilar in their tastes, 
from many who call the same Saviour " Lord," 
but they will not suffer that difference to de- 
generate into hatred. They may have, as they 
really believe, just cause of complaint against a 
Christian brother. But they cherish not an un- 
forgiving spirit. They are taught by St. John, 
that cherished enmity and a refusal to forgive 
are utterly alien to a Christian bosom, — things 
which cannot coexist with a filial relation to 
God. As well might darkness dwell in, and 
issue from, the sun, as an unforgiving disposi- 
tion find a permanent residence in a genuine 
follower of the Redeemer. Moreover, tender 
compassion for all who are in affliction, and an 
expansion of the heart in acts of benevolence to 
relieve distress, will be evident in the children 
of God ; and will constitute part of the evidence 
of their title to that honorable appellation. " For 



90 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his bro- 
ther have need, and shutteth up the bowels of 
his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love 
of God in him ?" These marks (and there are 
others in addition) are of a negative and exclu- 
sive character. By this we mean, that those 
in whom the commission of outward sin, or the 
love of the world, or unkind feeling toward any 
soul of man, is found, are by these Scriptural 
tests declared not to be the children of God. 
They are therefore marks adapted to assist in 
the important duty of self-examination. But 
the more positive and confirmatory marks of 
divine sonship we now proceed to consider. 

1. " We know that we are of God, because 
we love the brethren." This is a test which 
may be easily applied. There is, among all the 
children of God, a peculiar affection for each 
other. Wherever the features of the divine 
character appear, they attract the love of all 
who are like-minded. Wherever God has set 
the stamp and seal of his paternity, there all 
his children recognize his infallible signature, — 
and, loving him who begat, they love all that 
are begotten of him. Nor can it be difficult for 
us to decide, whether we feel for the children 
of God an affectionate regard, such as springs 
from a similarity of nature, and from a partici- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 91 

pation in the same high and holy principles of 
conduct. Our own consciousness will tell us, if 
it be true, that we love them, because we are 
like them. 

2. Again : " Every one that doeth righteous- 
ness is born of him." This is a test which St. 
John again and again applies ; and the frequency 
with which the sentiment is repeated, shows 
that the apostle judged the importance of it to 
be great, and the application of it to be compar- 
atively easy. " Hereby we do know that we 
know him, if we keep his commandments." 
1 John ii, 3. The apostle, in these words, evi- 
dently assumes that a man cannot but be con- 
scious whether he now yields an habitual atten- 
tion and obedience to all the divine commands. 
If he be a child of God, his conscience will 
" bear him witness in the Holy Ghost" that he 
studies to please God in all things. He joins 
in the holy exultation of Saint Paul, " Our re- 
joicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, 
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, ..... 
we have our conversation in the world." It 
need not surely be with me a matter of doubt 
whether I uniformly regard the will of God as 
supreme — his published law as my rule of life — 
whether I take up and perform my daily work, 
as a series of acts of obedience to him. Can I 



92 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

say with TDavid, " O how I love thy law ;" — 
" I delight to do thy will, O my God ; yea, thy 
law is within my heart ?" Psa. xl, 8. There is 
here also, as in all the other instances, an ap- 
peal to conscience. The spirit of every child 
of God is an obedient spirit, and the obedience 
he renders is one test of his sonship. 

3. Conscious love to God, and the holy joy 
which attends it, will constitute another charac- 
teristic of the sons of God. The filial relation- 
ship is the source of filial love, and spontaneously 
produces it in the heart when that relationship 
is revealed to the soul by the Holy Ghost. We 
love our heavenly Father who has first loved 
us, and has revealed to us his love, that he 
might kindle a corresponding emotion in these 
naturally cold and unfeeling hearts. We then 
"joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," 
by whom we have now received the atonement. 
There rises up in the soul, immediately upon its 
adoption, a well-spring of sacred comfort, — an 
indescribable sense of safety, accompanied with 
bright and cheering hopes of immortal glory ; 
and the result is, that joy, sometimes indeed 
greater and sometimes less in amount, becomes 
an inhabitant of the breast. This love and this 
joy are conscious blessings ; we are certified of 
their existence because we feel them; and in 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 93 

reference to their existence there can be no mis- 
take. Moreover, in this their peculiar and filial 
character, they exist only in the children of 
God, and they therefore become Scriptural and 
sure marks, by which the evidence of our son- 
ship may be confirmed. 

4. The apostle Paul (Rom. v, 1) further no- 
tices, as a distinct result of this new relation in 
which we stand toward our heavenly Father, 
"peace with God ;" and in enumerating the va- 
rious Christian graces in another epistle, Gal. v, 
22, after mentioning love and joy, he gives the 
third place, in point of importance, to that "peace 
with God" which he had, in the former passage, 
described as the immediate result of being just- 
ified by faith. Between this peace of mind and 
the previous trouble and distress the difference 
is great. The transition from the sense of guilt 
to the consciousness of the divine favor is too 
obvious to be mistaken. The storm and tem- 
pest of alarm and dread which preceded must 
needs render the great calm which follows them 
the more memorable and striking. It therefore 
follows, that this peace — the inseparable attend- 
ant upon a state of adoption — must needs be- 
come a criterion by which the genuineness of 
the inward witness of our adoption may be dis- 
criminated. 



94 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

5. To sum up the whole : The witness of the 
Spirit is always to be confirmed by the fruits of 
the Spirit. The inward testimony is to be cor- 
roborated by the outward signs. Those marks 
of the sons of God are, therefore, made so clear 
and plain that he who runs may read. Wherever 
the fruits of the Spirit are described in the word 
of God, (and they are frequently adverted to,) 
there are the confirming tokens of our sonship. 
All the long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, — 
all the fidelity, meekness, and temperance, — 
whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, 
lovely, and of good report, — all the patience, 
brotherly kindness, charity, — all the courage, 
victory over temptation, and resignation to our 
heavenly Father's will, which the word of God 
describes as being found in those who belong to 
him, — all these Christian graces will bring their 
testimony, that we have been taken out of the 
family of the world, and translated into the 
family of God. 

The process by which we arrive at this con- 
clusion is short, and simple, and satisfactory. 
It is a purely logical inference. Whoever he 
be that possesses these marks of the children of 
God, the same is an adopted child of God ; but 
I have these marks, therefore I am a child of 
God. As to the first, or major proposition, it 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 95 

is in itself sufficiently plain, and needs no proof. 
As to the second, or minor proposition, namely, 
that I have those marks ; its proof is in the man's 
own consciousness ; and for this reason the 
whole of the evidence is called the toitness of our 
own spirit. " How does it appear/' says Mr. 
Wesley, (Works, vol. i, p. 87,) " that we have 
these marks? Observe, that the meaning of 
the question is, how does it appear to ourselves, 
not to others. I would ask him that proposes 
this question, How does it appear to you, that 
you are alive, and that you are now in ease, 
and not in pain? Are you not immediately 
conscious of it ? By the same immediate con- 
sciousness, you will know if your soul is alive to 
God. . . . You cannot but perceive if you love, 
rejoice, and delight in God ; — if you love your 
neighbor as yourself; if you are kindly af- 
fectioned to all mankind, and full of gentleness 
and long-suffering. And with regard to the out- 
ward mark of the children of God, which is, 
according to St. John, the keeping his com- 
mandments, you undoubtedly know in your own 
breast, if, by the grace of God, it belongs to 
you." 

This second point being thus ascertained, — 
or, in other words, our conscience bearing us 
witness in the Holy Ghost that these marks of 
7 



96 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the children of God are found in us, — we may 
draw the inference with undoubting confidence ; 
and our own spirit bears its testimony, together 
with that of the Spirit of God, that we have 
been adopted into the divine family. 

But here it may be said, Why may we not at 
once, and in the first instance, go for evidence 
of our adoption to those signs and tokens which 
are drawn from the infallible word? If there 
are plain and certain criteria of the children of 
God, given us by himself in the inspired volume, 
are not these near at hand, available, and suffi- 
cient for all the purposes of edification and 
comfort ? 

To this question we answer, first, that, sup- 
posing it were possible to attain to a certain 
degree of evidence of our filial relationship to 
God, without any direct witness of his Spirit, 
it would still remain a serious question, whether 
we are at liberty to set aside one of the especial 
offices of the Holy Ghost. As the Spirit of 
adoption, he is sent by the Father into the 
hearts of believers, to bear witness to their son- 
ship. He enables them to cry, Abba, Father ; 
to give confident utterance to the language of 
filial love. It surely does not become them to 
inquire whether there be not some other way 
in which they may be enabled to utter the same 



WITNESS OP THE SPIRIT. y/ 

delightful accents. The way in which God has 
appointed that they should seek the assurance 
of his favor must be the best. 

But we answer next, that although, for the 
sake of argument, we may assume it to be pos- 
sible to refer at once to the marks of sonship 
recorded in Scripture ; yet we are persuaded 
that, if we leave out of view the witness of God's 
Spirit, this looking for the distinguishing quali- 
ties of his children will be in vain. The marks 
themselves will not be found. They are the 
fruits of the witnessing of the Spirit, and can- 
not exist without his previous testimony to our 
adoption. 

To instance in one only of these distinguish- 
ing qualities : — We must, of course, love God 
before we can have that consciousness of filial 
love to him which constitutes one of the surest 
marks of our sonship. But, before we can love 
God with a filial love, we must know his pater- 
nal love to us. Now to reveal God's love to us, 
is the very end for which the Spirit of adoption 
is given. To look, therefore, for the love of 
God before we have the testimony of the Spirit, 
is to anticipate the effect before the existence 
of its cause. 

The order of the divine procedure appears to 
be this, — first, on our penitently believing in 



98 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the atoning death of Christ, God adopts us into 
his family. In the same moment he gives us 
his Spirit to witness this gracious act to our 
spirit. His pardoning love is then revealed; 
and we, as the immediate consequence, love our 
heavenly Parent. Then, and not till then, we 
have the witness in ourselves — the witness of our 
own spirit — that one of the inseparable marks 
of adoption exists in our breasts. In short, we 
must love God before we can have the witness 
of our own spirit ; and we must know the love 
of God to us by his own direct testimony before 
love to him will be felt in our hearts. The di- 
rect testimony of the Spirit must needs, there- 
fore, be first in the order of time. 

This argument, however, by which we prove 
that the witness of God's Spirit must precede 
the witness of our own, has been objected to. It 
has been said, that we assume too much in lay- 
ing down the proposition, that a direct testimo- 
ny of God's love to us is necessary before we 
can love him. May we not (it has been asked) 
be assured of God's love to us, on the testimony 
of his word ; and may we not love him because 
by reading that word we know that he has loved 
us ? To this it is easy to reply, that what we 
read in his holy word is the declaration of God's 
love to the human race in general. But the 



WITNESS OF THE SPITIT. 99 

conviction of this, is a thing quite distinct from 
the delightful persuasion of his paternal love to 
us in our individual adoption. The one is an 
intellectual perception of truth ; the other is a 
feeling. The one rests in the head ; the other 
influences and elevates the heart. 

The belief that God has loved the whole world 
— that his love is wonderful, and passing know- 
ledge — that the death of the Son of God is a 
proof and an exponent of this love — and that he, 
by the unspeakable grace of the Father, tasted 
death for every man : the full and entire cre- 
dence of these truths is, indeed, something 
great. Theoretically, it is one of the most 
solemn and momentous convictions of the hu- 
man understanding. But many possess it, and 
yet derive little or no personal comfort from it. 
There is an additional truth which alone can 
bring the desired consolation : — He " loved me, 
and gave himself for me." The belief of God's 
general love to all mankind may induce the 
feeling of admiration, of wonder, perhaps even 
of gratitude. But to be persuaded of our per- 
sonal interest in our heavenly Father's love — 
which is certainly included in uttering the ac- 
cents of filial confidence, and crying, "Abba, 
Father" — this is the spring and source of filial 
love to him. 



100 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

The result of the whole is this : What God 
has joined together let not man attempt to sepa- 
rate. As the witness of the divine Spirit, and 
the witness of our own spirit, are spoken of as 
united, in producing the habitual sense of filial 
relationship which is enjoyed by believers ; no 
man should content himself with the one in the 
entire absence of the other. Let no one take 
up and be satisfied with the supposed fruits of 
the Spirit, in the absence of the witness of the 
Spirit. There may be occasional gleams of 
joy— foretastes of peace — and some degree of 
power over sin, previously to the sealing of the 
Spirit of adoption. But they should not be rest- 
ed in. They are given to encourage those who 
are the subjects of them to seek the complete- 
ness of that higher and happier state of which 
they are the foretaste. 

Apart from the clear evidence of the Spirit 
of adoption, these fruits of the Spirit will neces- 
sarily be defective. The peace will not be that 
deep and serene peace " which passeth all un- 
derstanding," and which is especially wrought in 
the soul by the Spirit of God when he seals the 
heirs of salvation. The joy will not be that joy 
unspeakable which results from the precious- 
ness of Christ, when the soul's interest in him 
is assured by the inward and divine testimony. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 101 

In a word, the change which the Spirit works— 
if it is looked to as a primary evidence, setting 
aside his gracious office in the act of adoption — 
even all the fruits of the Spirit, from love, which 
is the foremost of the train, to victory over the 
world and sin ; all these will be found defective 
and shadowy, totally incapable of producing 
that satisfactory assurance which is sought from 
them. 

The correctness of this representation will be 
proved, we have reason to think, by the expe- 
rience of those who have been led by their creed 
to disbelieve the doctrine of the direct witness 
of the Spirit ; and to expect such evidence only 
of their acceptance with God as can be gather- 
ed from the effect of religion upon their tem- 
pers and lives. Great uncertainty as to their 
religious state is the very general result. We 
do not, in fact, find that they ever arrive at any- 
thing that can be called a comfortable persua- 
sion of their being accepted and pardoned. In- 
terminable doubts arise in their minds ; and 
fears lest the evidence should be incomplete. 
In the most favorable cases, their days of bright 
and cheering hope are succeeded by dark hours 
of painful apprehension, lest they should have 
rested the inference of their acceptance with 
God on doubtful and insufficient grounds. Now, 



102 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

it is no departure from charity to suppose that 
the Spirit of God withholds from them his con- 
solatory influences because they withhold from 
him his appropriate honors. They leave out 
of their creed, more or less entirely, the office 
of the Spirit of adoption ; and he leaves them 
in a state of doubting uncertainty as to the re- 
lation in which they stand toward God. 

It is deeply to be deplored that such should 
be the effect of an imperfect teaching of the 
privileges of Christianity. But, with reference 
to the persons of whose unsatisfactory expe- 
rience of the comforts of religion we have re- 
marked upon, there is reason to conclude, that 
if they had sat under a ministry which unfolded 
to them habitually their privilege to receive, by 
simply believing the Spirit of adoption, they 
would have been saved from many doubts, 
and fears, and sorrows ; and that they would 
have been more happy, more holy, and more 
useful. 

From the conviction, therefore, that we are 
not at liberty to set aside any vital doctrine of 
the Christian system — such as we consider to 
be the doctrine of the witness of the divine Spi- 
rit in our adoption — persuaded, moreover, that 
all evidence, apart from a divine testimony, will 
fail to satisfy us on the momentous point of our 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 103 

reception into the family of God — we repeat our 
admonition — let no one rest satisfied with the 
supposed fruits of the Spirit, if his inward tes- 
timony be not enjoyed. 

On the other hand, we would be equally stren- 
uous in insisting that no one ought to rest in the 
supposed witness of the Spirit without the ac- 
companying fruits of the Spirit. If the comfort 
of our souls, and the vitality of our religion, 
mainly depend upon our possessing the direct 
witness of our adoption, we would, in addition, 
say, that the very safety of our religious state is 
closely connected with our exhibiting the fruits 
of the Spirit, as the indirect testimony. In the 
absence of these, there would, indeed, be cause 
of apprehension. For we wish not to close our 
eyes to the fact that self-deception, in reference 
to our religious state, is quite possible. The 
devices of Satan are numberless, and endlessly 
diversified ; and safety is only to be secured by 
taking heed to the regulation of the heart and 
life according to the written word. " Blessed 
is the man that feareth always," with a jealous 
and godly fear of mistaking his real character, 
and missing his heavenward path. But all dan- 
ger of mistake is prevented, if we adhere to 
the Scriptural method. It is, in its complete- 
ness, sufficient to produce the most entire and 



104 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

comfortable persuasion of the great fact we 
wish to ascertain ; for it is the voice of the Spi- 
rit of the living God. On the other hand, it is 
perfectly safe ; for the gracious fruits which are 
its immediate result are adapted to preserve us 
from all danger of having mistaken that divine 
communication. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT ESSENTIAL TO 
THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SOUL. 

Having, in the previous chapters, stated the 
subject of this essay doctrinally, and having 
endeavored to make it clear from Scripture what 
the privilege of believers really is, we must now 
look at the matter in its experimental and practi- 
cal bearings. The attention of the reader will, 
in this chapter, be directed to those considera- 
tions which demonstrate the great importance 
of this doctrine in the Christian system. It is 
no mere theory for which we contend. All 
that is vital — all that is transforming in Chris- 
tianity is involved in it. In the question — Does 
the great Jehovah love me with a Father's ten- 
derness ; and, as the result of this, do I render 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 105 

to liim ray heart in filial love ? — there are in- 
cluded all the questions of greatest moment which 
can be asked or answered by an immortal spirit. 
It is in effect to say, Am I justified ? Am I 
regenerated ? Am I a Christian ? Have I the 
principle of obedience to God in my heart ? 
Have I such confidence in God that I can commit 
all my concerns into his hand ? Have I, in a 
word, a well-grounded hope of heaven ? We 
shall endeavor to prove that this intimate union 
between the witness of the Spirit, and all that 
is most important in experimental religion, does 
actually exist ; and, if this be the case, it will 
plainly appear to be a matter deserving our most 
serious attention to understand this connection ; 
and to have it settled in our minds as one of the 
established principles of the spiritual life. 

1. The witness of the Spirit, in the first place, 
is so intimately connected with our free justifica- 
tion by faith in the blood of Christ, that the one 
cannot be rightly understood without the other. 
Among the many definitions that have been given 
of the justification of a believer, we select the 
following as the most ample and complete, per- 
haps, that was ever put into language : — To 
justify a sinner, is to account and consider him 
relatively righteous, and to deal with him as 
such, notwithstanding his past actual unrighte- 



106 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

ousness ; by clearing, absolving, discharging, and 
releasing him from various penal evils, and es- 
pecially from the wrath of God, and the liability 
to eternal death, which, by that past unrighte- 
ousness, he had deserved ; and by accepting him 
as if just, and admitting him to the state, the 
privileges, and the rewards of righteousness.* 
In this definition it is, of course, supposed that 
the gracious act of divine mercy, by which we 
are justified, is made known to the pardoned 
believer. It does not pass in the divine mind 
without any communication being made to him 
who is the subject of it. For, if he were left 
ignorant as to the important question of the 
divine favor toward him, he could not be said 
to be again admitted "to the state, privileges, 
and rewards of righteousness." To preach the 
complete and entire gospel, it is not sufficient to 
announce generally that, upon our believing, we 
are justified, cleared, and absolved from the 
penal evils which we have merited. But, to 
make the matter complete, it must be added that, 
with our justification is connected our adoption 
into the heavenly family ; and with our adoption 
is also conjoined the gift of the Spirit of adop- 
tion, testifying that we are the children of 
God. 

* Bunting's Sermon on Justification, page 7. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 107 

The doctrine of justification by faith may 
evidently be preached very imperfectly. By 
some, who to a certain extent deserve the name 
of evangelists, it is often so imperfectly preached 
as to deprive it, in no small measure, of its Scrip- 
tural efficacy. A preacher may show, for exam- 
ple, with sufficient clearness, that by the works 
of the law no flesh can be justified before God. 
He may prove that by faith in the atonement 
of Christ, and by that alone, can any man be 
forgiven. If, however, he leave the matter in 
that abstract form, it remains in the shape of a 
theory and a creed; rests in the mind inope- 
rative ; and none of the important results of sal- 
vation are produced. But if, in addition, he 
show that God does something more in justifi- 
cation than forgive sin ; that he adopts all who 
believe as his sons, and sends the Spirit of his 
Son into their hearts, testifying the filial relation 
they now stand in toward him ; then the matter 
becomes one of immense personal concern to all 
who receive the gospel message. This view, 
above all others, tends to bring home to the 
man's liosom his own individual concern in the 
present possession of the great salvation ; tends 
to impress his mind with the infinite moment 
of this question, " Am I in a right state of reli- 
gious experience, as a professed disciple of 



108 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

Christ ?" and leads, by necessary consequence, 
to the most careful searchings of the heart. 

" If now the Witness were in me, 
Would he not testify of thee, 

In Jesus reconciled ? 
And should I not with faith draw nigh, 
And boldly Abba, Father, cry, — 

And know myself thy child V 

The doctrine of justification appears therefore to 
be incomplete without that of the adoption of the 
justified person into the divine family ; and this 
latter must be understood to be inseparably 
associated with the office of the Spirit of adoption, 
sent into the heart of every justified believer, to 
attest the gracious act of his heavenly Father. 
It is in this order of connection, as now stated, 
that we place the threefold blessing of justifi- 
cation, adoption, and the witness of the Spirit. 
In the order of thought, it is, first, justification, 
then adoption, then the witness of adoption. 
But at the same time it ought to be observed 
that this relates solely to the order of thinking. 
In point of fact, the blessings are coexistent and 
inseparable. 

But may not a man be justified, (it has been 
asked,) and consequently adopted into the divine 
family, without being favored with a clear assu- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 109 

ranee of his acceptance with God? To this 
important question we answer, that, in asserting 
the constant union of the blessings of justification 
and of the witness of adoption, we speak of the 
usual method of God's dealings with his people ; 
and, moreover, of his dealings with them in 
circumstances where the gospel, in all its extent 
and amplitude of privilege, is fully preached. 
We would not positively affirm that there are 
no exceptions to the general rule that a justified 
person, on condition that he hear the whole 
gospel, is blessed with a sense of pardon. The 
most judicious divines, whose attention has been 
directed to this subject, have seen reason to con- 
clude that there may be a few exceptions. 
There may be states of the bodily health, which, 
for a time, seem to preclude the enjoyment of 
comfort. A derangement of the nervous sys- 
tem may sometimes cause a settled gloom, which 
oppresses the spirits, and interrupts the joy of the 
soul. Where the piety of the individual is un- 
doubted — where the influence of religion over 
the whole man is unquestionable — and yet the 
soul remains in darkness as to the divine favor 
-—we are obliged to place such cases among the 
mysteries of God's dealings, which the light of 
eternity alone will illumine. The cases are so 
rare, where the gospel is fully declared, that, as 



110 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

exceptions, they argue nothing against the gene- 
ral rule of the divine procedure ; and the causes 
of many of these exceptions, could we scrutinize 
the heart, would doubtless immediately become 
plain to our apprehension. 

On the other hand, where the office of the 
Spirit, as the Spirit of adoption, is in fact set 
aside in the ministry of the word, by the doc- 
trine that there is no other witness of the Spirit 
but the fruit of the Spirit, we would by no 
means assert, that all who are found destitute 
of an assurance of salvation are under the wrath 
and displeasure of God. Their experience can- 
not be expected generally to go beyond their 
creed ; although we believe that, with reference 
to the more pious of them, it often does so. We 
are not called to decide upon their case. To 
their own Master they stand or fall. It suffices 
us to entertain the conviction, that there is no 
Christianity without love, on our part, to a par- 
doning God. We know not of any method in 
which this can be brought into the heart except 
by our being assured of his love to us. But 
we would not, on this account, deny the Chris- 
tianity of those who see this matter in a different 
light from ourselves. To us it must still ap- 
pear, that there is an intimate connection 
between the doctrine of justification and the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. Ill 

doctrine of the witness of the Spirit ; — that to 
preach the former without the latter, is to preach 
an incomplete gospel; — and that, in point of 
fact, the office of the Spirit, as the Spirit of 
adoption, lies at the foundation of experimental 
religion. 

2. Equally close is the connection between 
the view of the Spirits work for which we con- 
tend, and the correct exhibition of the new-birth 
or regeneration. When hearers of the gospel 
are directed (as we fear is not seldom the case) 
to seek for regeneration independently of justi- 
fication, and even previously to it — independ- 
ently also of adoption and previously to it — -the 
order is inverted in which these blessings are 
placed before us in the Scriptures. At the 
hazard of being thought chargeable with a re- 
petition of what has been before said, we must 
state that the Scriptural order in which justifi- 
cation, adoption, and regeneration, are to be 
contemplated, is this :- — When, with an humble, 
penitent heart, we believe and trust in the 
atoning sacrifice of Christ, — that faith is, through 
the boundless mercy of God, counted unto us 
for righteousness. It is imputed to us (elg 
difcacoavvrjv) for our justification. We are im- 
mediately adopted into the family of God ; and 
the Spirit of adoption is sent into our hearts to 
8 



112 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

testify the gracious act. He, the Eternal Spirit, 
in revealing the Son of God as out Saviour, 
sheds abroad in our hearts love to a pardoning 
God ; — and we love him from a deep and per- 
manent persuasion of his love to us. This love 
of God is a new principle ; and produces an 
entire revolution in the character. It becomes 
the principle of a new life ; under its influence 
we become new creatures ; we are born again ; 
— " born, not of the will of man, but of God." 
John i, 13. 

Thus, while our regeneration is the work of 
the Holy Spirit, and while the important change, 
or rather renewal, is wrought by his gracious 
agency, the instrumental means by which it is 
produced is the introduction of the love of God, 
as a pardoning God, into the soul. It follows, 
that the order in which these blessings must be 
placed is, first, justification, accompanied by the 
witness of our adoption ; then, following this, — 
but without any intervening period of time that 
can be discerned, — the regeneration of the soul ; 
this real change following immediately the 
relative change which has just been effected. 

It is of great importance that we should keep 
the distinction very clearly in our minds be- 
tween the relative change in justification, and 
the real change in the new-birth. We should 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 113 

not forget that the first named of these must, in 
the nature of things, precede. We are not re- 
generated in order to the attainment of justi- 
fication ; but rather, we are justified hi order to 
our being regenerated. Still further, it is need- 
ful to bear in mind that the witness of the 
Spirit to our adoption is the connecting link, as 
it were, between justification and the new-birth. 
The relative position in which we have now 
placed them is not, by any means, as appeal's to 
us, an arbitrary one ; but the natural order of 
their occurrence. Justification is, in the order 
of thought, followed by adoption ; and adoption 
introduces into our hearts the love which is the 
principle of the new-birth. 

If this be a correct view, it must then be evi- 
dent that any representation which should invert 
this Scriptural order would be productive of 
mischief. To change the relation which these 
gospel blessings bear to each other, (so as to 
teach, for instance, that the new-birth must go 
before justification,) would introduce great con- 
fusion into the system of Christian doctrine. 
This is, in fact, too frequently done. For want 
of holding Scriptural views, as to the believer's 
privilege to be assured of his sonship, the ac- 
count of his regeneration is incomplete and 
imperfect. The views of the new-birth, as to 



114 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the amount of what is included in it, are very 
obscure ; and the standard of the regenerate 
man's condition is placed much too low. 

Regeneration, when it is the result of the 
testimony of the Spirit to our adoption, is a very 
honorable and elevated attainment. It is not 
merely a change of views ; — it is not simply a 
conviction of sin ; — it is not comprised in a mere 
change of purpose. It includes abundantly more 
than a feeling of dissatisfaction and disgust with 
the emptiness and frivolity of this vain world. 
"Where these things are, it is sometimes too 
hastily concluded that regeneration must neces- 
sarily be. But they come far short of it. There 
may be even a deep sorrow for sin, a turning 
away from the paths of sin, and, in short, a very 
visible change in the whole external conduct ; — 
and yet, all this may be very remote from a 
thorough, Scriptural regeneration. It ought 
rather, perhaps, to be classed under the head of 
repentance, and of fruits meet for repentance. 
But to represent this preparatory work of the 
Holy Spirit as being itself regeneration is a 
great and dangerous mistake. It is one, how- 
ever, which, we fear, is not unfrequently com- 
mitted. There are thousands, and tens of thou- 
sands, who have serious impressions of the value 
of religion, impressive views of the evil of sin, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 115 

and some delight in the exercises of piety, who 
have yet never experienced what the Scripture 
means by the new-birth. 

For want of correct views of the work of the 
Spirit, in making the sense of our adoption the 
means of introducing the love of God into our 
hearts, and consequently the means of creating 
us anew; — for want of Scriptural views of 
the order and method in which the Spirit works ; 
■ — there is great danger of persons taking up 
with a very imperfect religious experience, and 
supposing themselves to be regenerated, when, 
in point of fact, they might rather be said to 
have been merely convinced of their need of 
regeneration. 

The new-birth, then, be it observed, must 
include the love of a pardoning God, as the very 
principle whence it takes its origin. The intro- 
duction of this into the heart is the very point 
from which the individual sets out, like Enoch, 
to walk with God. It is this which gives to all 
his actions an entirely new character. They 
are now the spontaneous developments of a 
newly implanted energy ; and one which is of 
sufficient force to exhibit all the marks, and 
present all the evidence, of a new creation. 
Old things are passed away. New tastes and 
inclinations have been produced. New aims 



116 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

and purposes have sprung up in the soul. New 
pursuits have now called forth the best exertion 
of its renewed powers ; and the result of the 
whole is, that, as love makes the willing feet 
move in the paths of a new obedience, the whole 
man becomes pleasing to God. " But without 
faith" (and a faith that worketh by love) "it is 
impossible to please him." 

Our views of the entireness and completeness 
of this great change — the new-birth- — will there- 
fore much depend on our holding aright the doc- 
trine of the office of the Spirit of adoption, and 
on our connecting the new-birth with it as its 
inseparable result. It will also appear to fol- 
low, that a change so marked, so distinguished, 
can scarcely have occurred without leaving the 
remembrance of the time, the place, and the cir- 
cumstances of its occurrence. We are far from 
laying any great stress upon this, because we 
see that the Scripture lays none. God works 
this change with great diversity as to the man- 
ner of it. He opens the heart of a Lydia gently 
and imperceptibly ; while, in the heart of a Paul, 
" it pleases God to reveal his Son " with circum- 
stances which are never to be forgotten. We 
lay no stress on the mere details attendant upon 
any man's conversion ; but we speak now as to 
facts. Those who look upon conversion as the, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 117 

consequence of the revelation of the Son of Gcd 
in the heart, generally find it to be a change so 
great and striking, that the period of its occur- 
rence becomes memorable during all the remain- 
der of their pilgrimage. They are led to say 
with Paley, " A man might as easily forget his 
escape from a shipwreck." 

3. After noticing the connection of the witness 
of the Spirit with our gratuitous justification on 
the one hand, and with our regeneration on the 
other, we may further attempt to place its im- 
portance before the view of the reader by notic- 
ing its intimate association with all real enjoy- 
ment and happiness in religion. That man w T as 
made for happiness is as certain as that he w r as 
made to glorify God. The infinitely good Be- 
ing who gave us our existence has intimated to 
us, by the very constitution of our nature, that 
his will, in creating us, embraced our truest wel- 
fare ; that he contemplated nothing less than our 
ultimate enjoyment of all the felicity of which 
our wondrous being is capable. The infinite 
benevolence of his nature, and the sentient ca- 
pabilities of ours, equally demonstrate this point, 
on which his holy word has also set the stamp 
and seal of its sanction. Religion is then in- 
tended to make men happy. He who personi- 
fies her as delighting in sighs, and groans, and 



1 18 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

voluntary pains, has mistaken her character en- 
tirely. Gloom is alien to her nature. " Fear 
that hath torment" she favors not. 

11 Sweet peace she brings wherever she arrives; 
She builds our quiet as she forms our lives." 

This point being settled, that it is in the power 
of religion to confer happiness ; that it was in- 
tended by its Author to do so ; and that, where 
it fails of this, it must be deemed to be either 
erroneous, or, at least, defective ; — this being 
conceded, it will: become very apparent how- 
much the fulfillment of this part of the design 
of Christianity depends on the right understand- 
ing and experimental enjoyment of the witness 
of our adoption. How natural it is for the soul, 
in the absence of the divine favor, to languish 
and pine ! " Where is God my maker, who 
giveth songs in the night ?" " O that I knew 
where I might find him !" To a contemplative 
and thinking mind, and especially to a pensive 
and serious spirit, impressed, as it ought to be, 
with the solemn moment of eternal things, this 
world will appear one vast and gloomy wilder- 
ness in the absence of the smile of God. It is 
only the dissipation and distraction produced by 
visible and temporal objects which can prevent 
an immortal spirit, that has any sense of reli- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 119 

gion, from feeling its loneliness while destitute 
of a persuasion of God's favor. And when this 
dissipating effect of outward things ceases, and 
some afflictive dispensation strikes the thought 
inward upon itself, and forces on the soul the 
consideration of its own real condition, then its 
utter destitution begins to be felt. 

" 'Tis one great wilderness 



This earth without my God." 

Compare with this the happiness of an indi- 
vidual into whose heart the Spirit of God has 
been sent, enabling him confidently to address 
the Majesty of heaven with the endearing title 
of Father. He has emerged out of the previous 
darkness of guilt and condemnation, in which, 
perhaps, he had long lain. He is brought into 
the light of the divine favor, and walks in that 
marvelous light. How wondrous the transition ! 
" He who commanded light to shine out of dark- 
ness has shined into his heart ;" and everything 
in the aspect of visible nature seems to sympa- 
thize with the joyous change which has passed 
within him. The heavens now display the glory 
of God ; the earth looks fair with his beauty 
and the whole universe reflects his awful ma- 
jesty. The adopted believer, recognized as a 
son of God, " sings of mercy" all the day long. 



120 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

What has he now to dread, or what to regret, 
except, indeed, his inability to render any ade- 
quate returns for mercy like that which has been 
shown to him ? The happiness of which he is 
made a partaker appears to himself to possess 
a solidity and permanency quite distinct from 
every other source of happiness which the world 
contains. It is full of sweet satisfaction. It is 
bright with visions of immortal hope. It ap- 
pears exactly adapted to the wants and wishes 
of the immortal soul, 

" My Father, God! that gracious sound 
Dispels my guilty fear ; 
Not all the harmony of heaven 
Could so delight my ear." 

4. Closely connected with the observations 
just made is another important view: — that 
without a sense of our adoption into the family 
of God, there cannot be that confidence in ap- 
proaching to him, and that filial feeling of trust 
and reliance, which enter deeply into the essence 
of experimental piety. The trust of a loving 
child in the kindness, wisdom, care, and fidelity 
of a father, is a beautiful illustration of that state 
of the soul toward God which believers feel who 
walk in the light of his countenance. But this 
delightful feeling of repose in the arms of infi- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 121 

nite mercy must depend upon a clear evidence 
of our interest in that mercy. Where the sense 
of unforgiven sin remains, there must be the 
shyness of distrust, the shrinking of fear, and 
the absence of that entire liberty in pleading the 
promises which is so delightful. How can I 
draw near with confidence into the presence of 
the heavenly King till I know that he has par- 
doned my numerous and flagrant rebellions ? 
How lift up my face to the Majesty in the 
heavens, until that dazzling glory appears min- 
gled with signs of forgiveness, condescension, 
and love ? While conscience condemns, while 
the law utters its thunders, and while I have no 
inward persuasion that God has received me in 
mercy through the merits of his Son, I shrink 
and stand afar off, like the affrighted multitudes 
before the burning mount of Sinai. Guilt closes 
my mouth ; and if I am not absolutely speech- 
less, I utter but the language of lamentation and 
complaint. 

Such is the picture which every conscious 
unforgiven penitent has reason to draw of him- 
self. But how different do his feelings toward 
God become, when the Spirit is imparted to him 
" that he may know the things which are freely 
given to him of God !" By the new and living 
way, which Christ hath opened for him into the 



122 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

holiest, he draws nigh in the full assurance of 
faith. Guilt no longer oppresses him. All fear 
which hath torment departs. A sense of his 
heavenly Father's smile produces a complete 
confidence in his goodness, care, and sympathy. 
And now the confiding child of God knows what 
is meant by having boldness of access, — nappi]- 
oiav, — liberty of speech, in approaching to God. 
There is a childlike pouring out of his hopes, 
and fears, and desires, and aspirations, into the 
bosom of parental love. There is no conceal- 
ment ;— the child of God has nothing to conceal. 
God reveals to him, in his devotional approaches 
to the throne of grace, the secrets of his mercy, 
the infinity of his love, and encourages him to 
the exercise of that entire openness and unre- 
serve which only such favored spirits know. O 
who can tell the delight which the immortal 
spirit feels in the persuasion that " the high and 
lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity," hears with 
acceptance its feeblest cry, — hears it propitious- 
ly, — hears it with the feelings of a father ? The 
privilege is of such unspeakable value, that 
thousands of gold and silver, or even the entire 
accumulated treasures of the universe, would be 
inadequate to set it forth. Now we cannot con- 
ceive of the possibility of its existence, but in 
connection with reconciliation, adoption, and the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 123 

witness of adoption. The feelings of a servant, 
mingled with much of fear and dread, are one 
thing ; the feelings of a son are quite another. 
And in nothing will the distinction appear more 
strongly marked, than in the comparatif e confi- 
dence or distrust with which they will approach 
the throne of grace. " Thou art no more a ser- 
vant, but a son." 

5. Another consideration, which appears to 
demonstrate the great importance of the doc- 
trine of the witness of the Spirit, is, that it is 
intimately connected with all advance and pro- 
gress in holiness. We do not assert that there 
can be absolutely no growth in grace where this 
testimony is not enjoyed. There are, doubtless, 
gracious dispositions which may strike their 
roots and grow in the absence of the light and 
vital influence of God's smile. These are, how- 
ever, such gracious feelings as are experienced 
by all true penitents; as, contrition, and hu- 
mility, and hatred of sin. But even these be- 
come more mature subsequently to our justifi- 
cation. Right views of the enormity of sin, 
and deep contrition on account of it, are expe- 
rienced hi a far more perfect degree by those 
who are conscious of their reconciliation with 
God, than they can be by others. It is a sight 
of the cross, and of the love there manifested to 



124 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

poor sinful dying man, that melts the soul into 
deep feelings of awe, and fear, and sorrow, on 
account of our personal transgressions. " That 
thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and 
never open thy mouth any more because of thy 
shame, when I am pacified toward thee." Ezek. 
xvi, 63. Now, if this be the case, even with 
those gracious productions of the Holy Spirit 
which might seem to have a special reference to 
a state of penitence — if it be true that a con- 
scious assurance of reconciliation will perfect 
even these — still more intimate must the con- 
nection be between an inward revelation of our 
adoption, and the love which transforms us into 
the divine likeness, the gratitude which binds 
us to the cross, and the whole train of Chris- 
tian graces which make up the New Testament 
idea of holiness. 

All the operations of the divine Spirit upon 
the mind, previously to conversion, are of a 
preparatory character. At that period there 
are not, properly speaking, any advances in the 
divine life. The life of God in the soul of man 
has not yet commenced. But, together with 
the introduction of the love of God into the 
heart, as the result of his manifested love to us, 
there are immediately produced all the gracious 
dispositions of a Christian ; imperfect, indeed, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 125 

many of them, and weak in their exercise ; but 
still they are there ; long-suffering, meekness, 
temperance, charity, with her attendant and 
handmaid graces — whatsoever things are true, 
and just, and lovely, and pure, and of good re- 
port. There are found, united, the tempers 
which adorn the Christian, the conversation 
which distinguishes him, the motives which ac- 
tuate him, and the pure unselfish benevolence 
which is exhibited by the Christian alone. 

In all these graces there will be an advancing, 
just in proportion to the degree of clearness 
with which the evidence is enjoyed by us, that 
we walk in the divine favor. Alas ! in not a 
few Christians, they are — or at least some of 
these graces are — at a very low ebb. But if 
love grow cold — if joy and peace decline — if 
meekness and gentleness are exchanged for 
their unlovely opposites, anger and wrath — if 
there be a general deficiency of vitality and 
vigor in the external developments of the 
Christian spirit — we may generally conclude, 
with almost entire certainty, that the inward 
spring of holiness is wanting — that the love of 
a pardoning God, and the joyous walking in the 
light of his countenance, have been, in whole or 
in part, forfeited. 

But let the soul obtain, and continue clearly 



126 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

to enjoy, a sense of God's forgiving love ; and 
then the transformation of all its powers into 
the divine likeness regularly and progressively 
advances. It is cheered and invigorated by 
beholding the unclouded beams of the Sun of 
righteousness. It gazes with wonder, and awe, 
and adoring love, on what the bleeding cross 
has purchased, and on what infinite bounty has 
bestowed ; and, while it dwells on the revealed 
love of God, it is changed into the same image. 
It is brought near to God, and feels the effect 
of that nearness. It communes habitually with 
God, and feels the effect of that exalted com- 
munion. Meet and right it now appears to be, 
that all the powers of the soul should be de- 
voted to God — that the dedication should be 
entire — that the consecration should be com- 
plete. The understanding contemplates the 
revealed wonders of redemption ; the memory 
dwells on them; the affections are divinely 
regulated, and rest in the love of God with 
sweet complacency ; and the soul longs to 
sound all the depths of that solemn declara- 
tion, " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and 
there is none upon earth that I desire besides 
thee." 

The joy of the Lord is the strength of his 
people ; and the power by which they advance 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 127 

to still higher attainments, results, in great 
measure, from the invigorating influence of 
their heavenly Father's smile. In this happy- 
state of conscious reconciliation, nothing seems 
impossible to them. The soul feels as though 
lifted up on the wings of eagles, above the 
power of temptation. Victory over sin, in all 
its assaults, it is enabled uniformly to obtain ; 
and thus the happy child of God goes on to 
mortify, and ultimately to abolish, the whole 
body of sin. And now his language is, " Not 
as though I had already attained. I count not 
myself to have apprehended : but this one thing 
I do, ... I press toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." 

6. The witness of adoption is further pro- 
ductive of entire submission to our heavenly 
Father's will ; and, so intimate is the connection 
between them, that it appears doubtful whether 
submission to the divine disposals can subsist in 
any mature degree, except in those who happily 
realize their filial relationship to God. 

There are times and seasons in the expe- 
rience of all believers, when this grace, above 
all others, will be put to a severe trial. There 
will be times when their own wills must be re- 
nounced, and they will be called to forego their 
9 



128 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

most cherished purposes ; times when they will 
be necessitated to bow to such decisions of 
divine wisdom as are not only attended with 
pain, but also involved in much mystery. The 
present is a suffering state, and the people of 
God are not exempted from the common lot. 
Diseases, more or less severe, may assail this 
feeble earthly frame, and they may be called, 
not unfrequently, to endure extreme pain. 
Then, at times, the corruptible body presses 
down the mind, and causes painful musings 
and dark apprehensions. Domestic afflictions 
press heavily upon them ; and, in the transac- 
tion of this world's business, losses, and crosses, 
the distant apprehension, or the actual approach, 
of " poverty as an armed man," may sink their 
spirits down." 

Now, in times like these, the value of a com- 
fortable assurance that we are the children of 
God is delightfully felt. Nothing but this can 
enable us steadily to look affliction in the face 
without dismay. If we have reason to view it 
as a sign of divine displeasure, and as a chas- 
tisement of our folly and rebellion, — affliction 
then becomes an object of real terror. O never 
may it be the lot of my reader to look on afflic- 
tion as the stroke of His rod, into whose hands 
it is a fearful thing to fall ! 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 129 

But though " many are the afflictions" of the 
children of God, they are all deprived of their 
sting. Their character is entirely changed, and 
they are viewed as proofs and instances of un- 
bounded love. Within the compass of human 
thought there cannot be a consideration so 
adapted to sustain the soul in suffering, as the 
reflection that the cup of affliction, though bitter 
to the taste, is mingled by a Father's hand. It 
is far beyond a mere conviction of the judgment 
that all is well governed in the universe. For 
it is, in addition, a right state of the heart 
toward him who, while he rules all worlds by 
his supreme authority, is the Friend and Father 
of his people. It can produce, therefore, a de- 
lightful acquiescence of the soul in the rectitude, 
and in the benevolence, of dispensations the 
most painful. ' ; What would you do, madam," 
said a minister to a pious and afflicted lady, 
" What would you do, if the Lord should refer 
it to you to choose, in this sickness, whether 
you should live or die?" The answer was, 
tf Truly, I believe I should again refer it to him 
to choose for me." 

But where the submission required is not to 
the endurance of pining sickness, or domestic 
affliction, but to such occurrences in providence 
as cross our wills, or thwart our purposes* even 



130 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

there submission is only to be found in the per- 
suasion that we, and all our affairs, are in a 
Father's hand. The testimony of the Spirit, 
assuring us of our filial relationship to God, and 
producing entire confidence in his paternal love, 
enables us to say, " Make me what thou ivilt. 
Make me a vessel for thy service, more or less 
honorable. I am content if I may but be em- 
ployed for thee. Place me where thou wilt — 
in a higher or a lower station ; for, in the hea- 
venly family, all places are honorable. Use me 
as thou wilt. Although the employment may 
not be precisely that to which my heart would 
most incline, it must, if it be thy choice, and not 
my own, be best for me." Here the foundation 
of all true submission to the divine will, and 
consequently of all real contentment with our 
earthly lot, is laid. Here the repinings of our 
restless nature are hushed ; and, if we cannot 
have exactly the things we wish, we may, at 
least, refer it to the infinite wisdom and good- 
ness of our heavenly Father to choose for us, 
where w^e are conscious of our inability to choose 
for ourselves. 

" With steadfast mind thy course of duty run; 
God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, 
But thou wouldst do the same, if thou couldst see 
Th® end of all events, as well as He." 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 131 

7. Closely connected with this disposition of 
mind, which has reference to our present lot, is 
another, which refers to our anticipation of the 
future. No man will be able to look forward, 
with calm confidence, to what may be in fu- 
turity, unless he is persuaded, on the one hand, 
that there exists an almighty and all-wise Go- 
vernor of events ; and, on the other hand, that 
this almighty Being is his father and his friend. 
It will not be sufficient to know, as a general 
proposition, that God is wise, or that he is good. 
This may be perfectly true, and yet my happi- 
ness may not thereby be insured. The great 
question must still return — Is he good to me ? 
Have I an interest in his bounty and love, by 
standing in a filial relation to him ? An affirma- 
tive answer to this question can alone set my 
heart at rest, in looking forward into the pro- 
found obscurity of coming years. 

For, not unfrequently, the aspect of the fu- 
ture is dark and gloomy. It is always a vast 
unknown ; involving the most portentous events ; 
and sure to bring forth more wonderful and 
more painful results than are comprehended in 
the widest grasp of conjecture. O blindness to 
the future ! How wisely and how graciously are 
the secrets of futurity hidden from man ! Even 
the dim shadow which coming events cast be- 



132 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

fore them is sufficient to quell the stoutest heart, 
if it be not supported by confidence in the pa- 
ternal love of God. But the conviction, "My 
Father's at the helm," silences every fear. The 
time to come, as well as the present, is equally 
in his hands. The solemn future, with all its 
undiscovered secrets, with all its unknown cares? 
and trials, and pains, lies open to his view; and 
is even now arranged and ordered, in weight 
and measure. Wherever my future path may 
lie, (such is the language of faith,) " I cannot 
go where universal love smiles not around." 
" He shall choose our inheritance for us," is the 
determination of those who have confidence in 
his fatherly love ; who know that his choice is 
best ; and whose past experience teaches them 
that it is much safer to leave the direction of 
our path in his hands than to take it into our 
own. If our lot in life be of his ordering and 
appointing, with as little as possible of human 
choice in it, whatever unexpected trials may 
hereafter attend it, we shall feel confidence that 
it is working for our good. As to the future, 
(may the believer say,) it will probably be very 
much as the past has been, a varied scene of 
joy and sorrow. Much of mercy will be mingled 
with it ; and days of happiness, I would fain be- 
lieve, are yet in reserve for me. But I wish 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 133 

not to conceal from myself, even if it were pos- 
sible, that should my days be prolonged, there 
are before me at one time disappointed hopes, 
at another, the loss of endeared relatives ; I 
cannot hope to escape the languors of sickness, 
and the weakness of declining age. But all 
these things are in the hands of a Father, whose 
love toward me has been great at every step 
of my past life, and who will not forsake me at 
its last and closing period. " We are saved by 
hope." 

8. We may further remark, that the persua- 
sion of our heavenly Father's love is everything 
to us in point of obedience, as it is in point of 
comfort. The spring of all acceptable service 
rendered to God is love. There is a wide dis- 
tinction (as was remarked by one of the Greek 
fathers long ago) between the obedience of a 
servant who serves his master from fear, and 
that of another servant who is actuated by sin- 
cere love and a sense of obligation. From fear 
only so much of service will proceed as dare 
not be withheld. But love thinks it can never 
do enough. Fear will render service so long 
as the master's eye is upon him ; — not equally 
so when that eye is withdrawn. But love acts 
from nobler principles ; and renders not eye- 
service. Fear will labor very imperfectly at 



134 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

best; as must be the case where there is no 
will to work. But love is a motive of great 
power, a spring that never relaxes, an energy 
that never tires. Fear is a negative power; 
and may in its best estate go so far as to restrain 
from the commission of evil; but love alone 
prompts to the vigorous performance of what is 
good. Its language is, — 

" Too much to thee I cannot give,. 
Too much I cannot do for thee ; 
Let all thy love, and all thy grief, 
Graven on my heart for ever be." 

As it appears, then, that love to God is abso- 
lutely necessary to all efficient and energetic 
obedience, we shall see who are the characters 
that are adapted to do good service in the 
church, and to promote the cause of the Re- 
deemer in the world. They are those who have 
received the testimony of the Spirit of adoption ; 
w r ho have a sense of God's love to them ; and 
who love him in return with a truly filial love. 
" The joy of the Lord is their strength," to la- 
bor for him ; and inspires them with almost 
more than mortal vigor. The love of God is 
the noblest motive that can actuate an immortal 
being ; and at the same time it is the most 
powerful. It counts all labors light. It calls 
forth, in those who are the subjects of it, the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 135 

whole of their mental and physical energies in 
the divine service ; and, -while the love of burn- 
ing seraphim dwells in their bosoms, they imi- 
tate, in labors more abundant, the cherubim 
" who excel in strength." Or, if an infirm state 
of bodily health, or other insuperable impedi- 
ment, should render this untiring activity im- 
possible, still their labors, although less in 
amount, yet proceeding from that pure motive 
which is entirely approved by the great Master 
of all, will be accepted, smiled upon, and ren- 
dered useful, far beyond more splendid external 
services which spring not from filial love. For 
what are outward services to God, if the pure 
principle of love to himself, the infinite object 
of all love, be absent ? 

Even the eloquence of an angel, giving utter- 
ance to the sublimest sentiments ; or, on the 
other hand, mental and physical energies which 
should leave all mortal prowess behind; — all 
this, exerted in his service, would be nothing to 
him, if love were wanting. But services which 
proceed from this heavenly principle, although, 
by circumstances, they may be restricted and 
limited in their amount, he will delight to own 
and accept. They are done, so far as the prin- 
ciple of them is concerned, even as his " will is 
done in heaven." They may be the services of 



136 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

little children, of young men who have not at- 
tained their strength, or of aged men who have 
passed the period of active exertion. But the 
filial love from which they proceed gives them 
their acceptableness with God. He " seeth not 
as man seeth." He looks on the heart; and 
estimates the value of the work from the cha- 
racter of the workman. 

Thus, all the views we can take of this mat- 
ter tend directly to show us how intimate is the 
connection between the witness of the Spirit 
and every part of vital religion. It connects 
itself with all the graces of the Spirit, and is 
instrumental in their production. It is the 
spring of all the deep and heartfelt happiness 
of the Christian believer ; leads him on to con- 
tinual growth in grace ; inspires him with a 
confidence in all his heavenly Father's present 
dealings with him; teaches him to trust for the 
future; and, as the result of the whole, adds 
wings to his speed in doing the will of his Fa- 
ther in heaven. A possession which is thus as- 
sociated with every right feeling, with all true 
comfort, and, indeed, with all that is vital in ex- 
perimental and practical religion, must be of 
the greatest possible importance in the Christian 
life : and it must be for the interest and happi- 
ness of all to enjoy it permanently, and without 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 137 

the least obscuration or interruption. To this 
point the reader's attention will be invited in 
the next chapter. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE EVIDENCE OF ADOPTION, CONSIDERED IN 
ITS DEGREES OF CLEARNESS. 

When first the soul emerges out of the dark- 
ness of " the horrible pit ;" — when, after a long 
night of sorrow, and fear, and almost despair, 
it receives, through the Spirit of adoption, the 
happy assurance of God's forgiving love, — the 
evidence is usually so bright and clear as to be 
without a cloud. If it be suddenly imparted, 
(as is not unfrequently the case,) it is the more 
joyous, and approaches the nearer to a feeling 
of ecstasy. For, to experience such a transi- 
tion cannot but be associated with the liveliest 
emotions. These sensations of rapture, how- 
ever, must be expected to decline in their inten- 
sity ; for nothing that lifts up humanity so much 
above itself can ordinarily be permanent. Yet, 
so long as the believer walks with God in a 
calm and untroubled course of duty, he retains 



138 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the joyous sense of his acceptance undiminished 
as to any of its essential qualities. 

It is not, however, to be inferred that the 
evidence is uniform, as to the degrees of its 
clearness. One man may possess a more joyous 
and permanent testimony of his acceptance than 
his Christian brother, whose piety, at the same 
time, may be equally undoubted with his own. 
There is often something in the character of the 
individual mind, and still more in the circum- 
stances connected with the mode in which the 
believer first obtained, and still retains, his 
piety, which has great influence here. Ther£ 
may even be in the experience of the same in- 
dividual very considerable diversity; as all ex- 
perience shows. There may be times of brighter, 
and of less clear, manifestations of the love of 
God ; all which variations are, doubtless, regu- 
lated by benevolent laws, which are only in a 
very imperfect degree revealed to us. In cer- 
tain cases, that bright unclouded light which, 
we have said, breaks often suddenly upon the 
mind of the anxious penitent, and, for a time, 
banishes every doubt and every fear, may suf- 
fer a very painful obscuration. There may be 
reasons, partially known and partially concealed, 
why it diminishes in its clearness, declining 
gradually till, like the last ray of twilight when 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 139 

the dying day expires, it totally disappears. On 
the other hand, where the communication of the 
Holy Spirit's witness is gradual and impercep- 
tible, (a case not altogether unknown, though 
of rare occurrence,) the first faint ray of the 
morning twilight may illustrate the earliest com- 
mencement of the inward testimony; and the 
gradual increase of light, still advancing till it 
arrives at the meridian hour of perfect illumi- 
nation* may represent the progress of the soul 
toward the full assurance of faith. 

Between these two points, however, of total 
darkness on the one hand, and of meridian 
brightness on the other, as many intermediate 
degrees may probably exist in the spiritual ex- 
perience of a Christian, as in the illumination 
of the natural world. Some of the causes which 
may diminish, or wholly exclude, the enjoy- 
ment of this inestimable blessing ; and further, 
some of the means which conduce to its con- 
tinued and growing clearness, it will be the ob- 
ject of this short chapter to unfold. 

1. It maybe forfeited and lost by any act of 
flagrant unfaithfulness to God. Sin is so in- 
compatible with it, that any transgression of the 
Redeemer's royal law interrupts it; and, in 
place of the celestial light of God's favor, brings 
darkness into the soul. It does this, indeed, in 



140 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

different degrees. A clear and wide distinction 
is made in Scripture between sins of surprise 
and those of deliberate and cherished purpose. 
A man, according to St. Paul, (Gal. vi, 1,) may 
be overtaken in a fault. Sudden and unexpected 
temptation may surprise him, and repentance 
may immediately succeed his fall without the 
intervention of a moment. Such persons, ac- 
cording to the above inspired authority, are to 
be restored to the church; and from tfiis we 
may safely infer, that there is a gracious dispo- 
sition on God's part to restore them to his favor. 
Both the privileges just named — the favor of 
God, and union with his church — are forfeited 
by any open transgression whatsoever. But, 
when the character of the temptation has been 
such that the transgressor has appeared to be 
an object of pity rather than of severe censure, 
it seems evident that God often restores the 
humbled penitent, before long time has elapsed, 
to the joy of his salvation. 

It is, however, seldom that the extenuation 
can be pleaded on the part of him who has been 
surprised into sin, that no previous fault, or 
negligence, or omission of the requisite foresight 
had exposed him to the fall. Sin has, it is true, 
different degrees of enormity ; but even in its 
lightest aspect it is a very fearful thing. Often 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 141 

it brings upon the soul an entire and palpable 
darkness ; — iC a darkness that may be felt ;" — 
and out of which he who has again been plunged 
into that dreadful gloom finds it most difficult 
to emerge. What days and nights of mourning 
after an absent God are the lot of him whose 
faith has, perhaps, in one moment, suffered a 
total eclipse ! More difficult by far does it seem 
to recover what, by unfaithfulness, has been 
foolishly cast away, than it was to obtain it at 
the first. This may appear to be, in part, a 
natural consequence. The unfaithful soul can- 
not forget its unfaithfulness. It feels a shy dis- 
trust in approaching to the mercy-seat. The 
remembrance of abused mercy presses it down, 
and prevents a vigorous and believing applica- 
tion for a renewed act of pardon. And partly, 
these long nights of sorrowful lamenting over its 
fallen condition before it can be restored, must 
be looked upon often as a judicial chastisement. 
They are intended to be admonitory to all who 
witness them, and to the individual himself, that 
he sin no more against the law of liberty and love. 
2. But secret and concealed unfaithfulness 
also, some sin of the heart as well as some trans- 
gression in the life, may dim the brightness of 
the celestial evidence ; and may cause it to de- 
cline until it entirely disappears. " Grieve not 



142 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the Holy Spirit of God/' says the apostle, 
" whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp- 
tion." By this mode of speaking, the intimation 
is plainly given, that the Holy Spirit deals with 
us as rational and accountable creatures; that 
the state of our hearts toward him is constantly 
under his inspection ; and that he is as surely 
grieved by wrong tempers and unchristian dis- 
positions, inwardly indulged, as by an outward 
act of iniquity admitted into the life. When- 
ever, therefore, the Christian finds his evidence 
of the divine favor less bright and cheering, let 
him search for the cause of this declension; 
for, a cause there is somewhere in existence. 
His heart has probably departed, in some re- 
spects, from the living God. " If I indulge in- 
iquity in my heart," says David, "the Lord 
will not hear me." The affections, for instance, 
may fix upon improper and sinful objects ; or 
they may be placed on lawful objects in an im- 
proper degree. There may be in the soul in- 
ordinate desires after creaturely happiness, 
amounting to the sin of spiritual idolatry ; for 
they involve a rejection of God as the supreme 
good. Wrong tempers, as unkindness, peevish- 
ness, and a host of others, tend also to obscure 
the light of heaven ; for the Holy Spirit, whose 
emblem is the gentle dove, vail not communi- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 143 

cate himself unto, nor have any fellowship with, 
a soul in which these unlovely and unchristian 
tempers dwell. All the irascible passions es- 
pecially, such as the explosions of anger, the 
pinings of envy, the cherished feelings of a 
hatred which refuses to forgive, seem more im- 
mediately opposed to the enjoyment of a clear 
sense of God's favor ; for, as he is the God of 
love, he will only dwell in, and reveal himself 
to, a loving soul. 

Thus the state of the heart toward God may 
exercise a continual though secret influence 
upon the degree of clearness with which the 
Spirit of God bears his testimony to our sonship ; 
and we ought to deprecate above all things, and 
most carefully to watch against, such a departure 
from God as might induce the sacred Spirit 
altogether to withdraw his comfortable and 
cheering presence from us. 

3. But where the believer may not be able 
to find, in either outward or inward acts of 
transgression, the cause of the diminution or 
withdrawal of the Spirit's favorable testimony, 
let him examine whether omission may not be the 
source of a calamity so deeply to be deplored. 
The omission of plain and acknowledged duty, — 
negligence of the means of grace, — the restrain- 
ing of prayer before God, — all or either of these 
10 



144 "WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

may be quite sufficient to bring again a dark- 
ness upon the mind. The man who (to use a 
Scripture phrase) " does not stir up himself to 
call upon God," may thereby give evidence that 
he does not rightly estimate the privileges of 
sonship, and the unspeakable value of the know- 
ledge of salvation. He grieves the Spirit, by 
showing himself insensible to the infinite kind- 
ness and condescension of the Holy Ghost, the 
Spirit of adoption ; who comes and makes his 
abode in the human heart, in order that the soul 
may be assured of its interest in the great atone- 
ment. With what feelings of solemnity and 
awe, on our part, ought his presence with us to 
be marked ! How grateful should we be for 
such an undeserved favor ! how humble under 
a sense of our unworthiness of it ! and especi- 
ally how careful to cultivate that communion 
with the Holy Trinity which is so necessary to 
a uniform and comfortable walking in the light ! 
The soul needs, for the preservation of its peace, 
as well as for the strengthening of its energies, 
all the aid and succor it can derive from the 
means of grace ; and in this respect many be- 
lievers are wanting to their own best interests. 
There is too little communing with God. They 
do not " cleave unto the Lord with purpose of 
heart." No slight excuses should induce us to 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 145 

deprive ourselves of the communion of saints. 
All temptation to neglect the book of God, for 
any profitless and trivial reading, should be 
steadily resisted. Negligence and omission, in 
reference to these self-evident duties, will cause 
a languor of the soul. The lamps of even the 
wise virgins, if neglected, will burn but dim. 
The state of the soul will no longer be, by any 
means, satisfactory ; but days of doubt and 
gloom will alternate with occasional glimpses of 
hope. The full, and clear, and abiding evidence 
of God's love will be wanting ; and, unless the 
soul be aroused to a vigorous discharge of duty, 
all its fair prospects, and cheering hopes, may 
be permanently and fearfully eclipsed. 

4. A relapsing into a defective exercise of 
faith may produce a similar result. The eye 
of the soul must be fixed on the one great object 
of confidence, — the atoning death of the Saviour. 
Everything that comes between our mind and 
this glorious object, — everything that diverts 
our attention from it, in whole or in part, — is 
sure to prove injurious to our peace. Experi- 
ence may have taught us this ; and, certainly, 
if we have seen much of the dealings of God 
with others, observation must have confirmed it. 

Interesting cases of religious experience have 
come under our notice, where there has been 



146 WITNESS OF THE SPIEIT. 

great darkness of the soul, which it appeared 
somewhat difficult to account for. The persons 
in whom it occurred were exemplary in every 
external duty, — diligent in the use of the means 
of grace, — apparently conscientious in every 
part of their deportment, — and much in earnest 
to be safe and right in reference to eternity. 
But still they had not peace with God. They 
did not realize their interest in the atonement. 
The Spirit did not bear witness with their spirit, 
that they were the children of God ; and if they 
had, at some previous period, enjoyed a degree 
of comfort in the persuasion of their adoption, 
that comfort had departed. Their concern about 
their spiritual state was, at the same time, deep 
and painful ; and they would have done or en- 
dured anything, if they might but once more 
have beheld the light of God's reconciled coun- 
tenance. If, at first view, their case appeared 
puzzling, and involved in some degree of mys- 
tery, we have probably found, on a more minute 
inspection, what was its hidden cause. They 
were not chargeable with acts of transgression ; 
nor with neglect of any known duty. But their 
view had, some how or other, been withdrawn 
from Christ. Something had come between them 
and the Saviour ; so that while they acknow- 
ledged, in general, the doctrine of the atone- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 147 

merit, the eye of their soul, so to speak, was by- 
no means exclusively fixed on the cross, as the 
sole ground of acceptance. 

It is marvelous, (and perhaps can only be 
accounted for as a device of Satan,) that there 
should be so many things which secretly tend to 
hide Christ from our view ; and, therefore, to 
diminish and obscure the joy of faith. The be- 
liever may so dwell upon his sad defects, and 
on the remaining maladies of his soul, as to ex- 
pend on these that amount of contemplation which, 
if directed simply to the Saviour, would have 
brought immediate healing. This is as though 
an Israelite should have sat down, and counted, 
over and over again, the wounds received from 
the fiery serpents, (as an old writer says,) in- 
stead of looking off from himself to that emblem 
of the Saviour which Moses had lifted up. Or, 
at other times, the means of grace, however ex- 
cellent and necessary in themselves, instead 
of leading us directly to Christ, in which all 
their value consists, may, through our mistake, 
lead us away from him. We may be looking 
to receive from prayer, from hearing the word, 
from sacraments, that for which we ought 
simply to look to Christ's meritorious death and 
passion. 

Or, we live and walk too much by our feel- 



148 WITNESS. OF THE SPIRIT, 

ings, and too little by faith. Now, those feelings 
ma} r possibly be influenced by merely natural 
causes. Joyous sensations, which have more 
of earth in them than heaven, may lead to the 
indulgence of the most entire confidence. But 
then, in the same degree, that confidence will 
be liable to be depressed by a natural sinking 
of the spirits ; and may give place to doubt, or 
even despondency. There may, at the same 
time, it is easy to conceive, be as little real 
ground for the confidence, on the one hand, as 
for the despair on the other. In order to be 
entirely free from all danger of misleading us, 
our feelings must have constant reference to 
Christ. In other words, they must be the re- 
sult of faith, and not be put in the place of it. 
Or again, we may experience a diminution of 
the celestial light of assurance by losing sight 
of the freeness of the gift of justification. Our 
view may be taken off from the exclusive con- 
templation of the Saviour ; and we may again, 
though quite unconsciously, begin to look, in a 
greater or less degree, to something in ourselves, 
as the ground of our acceptance. Let us never 
forget that (to use a significant word of the great 
apostle) " God justifieth the ungodly." It is, 
indeed, upon his believing in Jesus, that God 
does this. But still that penitent seeker of sal- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIitlT. 149 

vation continues to be, up to the very moment 
of his free justification, exclusively and only an 
ungodly person. There is not found in him any 
reason, — no, not the most remote, — drawn from 
any consideration of what he is, or of what he 
has done,— that could bring down on him the 
divine favor. It is rather the absolute renounc- 
ing of all these grounds of confidence which 
prepares him for the exercise of saving faith. 
He is not justified because he is humble, or dili- 
gent, or prayerful : but simply, because he flies 
from every other ground of trust, and confides 
alone in the atoning death of Christ. Every- 
thing, therefore, which takes off the soul from 
the simplicity of this trusting in the atonement, 
obscures, in the same degree, the " full assurance 
of faith," and " the full assurance of hope ;" and 
the witness of the Spirit becomes less and less 
distinct, till it is in danger of disappearing alto- 
gether. 

Now, while there are, on the one hand, as 
we have shown, a multitude of things, whose 
influence is altogether unfavorable and adverse 
to a clear and permanent enjoyment of the 
divine witness of our sonship — so, on the other 
hand, it will not be difficult to demonstrate, that 
there are other dispositions of mind, and modes 
of conduct, which are eminently conducive to 



150 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

the permanence and clearness of this testi- 
mony. 

1. Nothing, perhaps, leads more directly to 
it than purity of intention. The promise of the 
Saviour to every disciple — that " if his eye be 
single, his whole body shall be full of light " — 
must be understood to insure to sincerity and 
simplicity, wherever found, inward direction on 
all that concerns our eternal interests. The 
light promised is divine light. It is the illumi- 
nation of the Holy Spirit. It accomplishes 
other purposes, indeed, besides directing the 
believer to right conclusions as to his spiritual 
state. But this it does accomplish among the 
rest. It is the light of the divine favor shining 
into his soul, and filling it with happiness. At 
the same time, we learn from the Saviour, that 
the proposition may be reversed. If the eye 
of the soul be not single — if the intention 
(which is to the soul what the eye is to the 
body) be not pure- — if the man is aiming at 
anything low, selfish, worldly, or creaturely, 
instead of aiming simply to glorify God — the 
perceptions of his soul are more or less ob- 
scured. Dimness, or even darkness, is the 
result. The sense of seeing, spiritually under- 
stood, is not in a right and transparent 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 151 

(aTTAOve) state ; and the light of heaven can- 
not shine through. 

This one consideration may, in no small 
measure, account for the diversities of religious 
experience in different individuals ; and even in 
the same individual, at different stages of his 
pilgrimage. The evidence of the divine favor 
will be influenced in its clearness by the cause 
which we are now adverting to ; and this cause 
will be incessant in its operation. There will 
be, in our purposes and aims, unless we are 
watchful, certain divergencies from that entire 
purity of intention, through which alone, as a 
lucid medium, the soul can contemplate God. 
If, on the other hand, we exercise due watch- 
fulness and self-inspection, these departures 
from simplicity and sincerity of purpose will be 
avoided. The result will be in exact correspond- 
ence with the keeping of the heart diligently. 
To aim at nothing but the divine glory — to 
desire nothing but God — to delight in nothing 
but as it leads to God — is a high and blessed 
attainment ; and the nearer we approach to it, 
the more sure will be our enjoyment of the 
unclouded evidence of the divine favor. 

2. Xext to the intention of the soul — the 
occupation of its intellectual powers demands 



152 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

our care. For on this, too, in no small degree, 
will depend the clearness of the divine witness 
of our acceptance. It becomes an important 
inquiry ? — On what is the mind habitually en- 
gaged ? On what matters does it dwell ? What, 
in the ordinary current of its thoughts, is most 
generally passing through it ? Not much pene- 
tration is requisite to perceive that it must be 
of the highest moment to employ the mind in 
meditation upon the word of God ; and so to 
preoccupy it with those divine communications, 
that trifles may not usurp the inward sanctuary 
of the soul — that all erroneous principles espe- 
cially may be excluded — and that the mind may 
become imbued, as it were, with the heavenly in- 
fluence which pervades the volume of inspiration. 
In that divine book God speaks to man — 
speaks to him on matters of infinite import- 
ance; and especially speaks to him all those 
things which, being believed, and received into 
the soul, conduce to its peace, and to the per- 
suasion of its safety. The intimate connection 
between the inward testimony of the Spirit, 
and the external testimony of the inspired word 
of God, is evident. The Spirit testifies that 
which the word testifies. There can be no 
discrepancy between them. So far we agree 
with many of those who oppose the doctrine of 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 153 

the direct witness of adoption. According to 
them, the Spirit speaks in the word. So also 
we teach ; but we go somewhat further, and 
say that he speaks also to the heart of the be- 
liever. We take care to avoid the error into 
which we think these our brethren fall. For 
they, dropping out of their view the work of 
the Spirit altogether, would have it to be un- 
derstood, that the written word, and that only, 
testifies that we are the children of God; thus 
making the word everything, and the Spirit 
nothing. We, on the other hand, believe and 
teach, that the testimony given by the word is 
only then adapted to afford us comfort, when 
the Spirit speaks, (as he often does,) through 
this medium, to the heart. What the word 
testifies generally, the Spirit applies particu- 
larly. The word announces, as a general truth, 
that all believers are the sons of God. But the 
Spirit reveals this as an individual privilege ; 
and enables the believer to utter the language 
of filial confidence, crying, Abba, Father. The 
word declares that Jesus Christ, by the grace 
of God, tasted death for every man. The truth 
is there — set forth with the utmost clearness, in 
the infallible word of God. But the illumina- 
tion of the Spirit is necessary to enable me to 
see and feel my own interest in it. 



154 WITNESS OF THE 6PIHIT, 

u 'Tis thine the blood t' apply > 
And give us eyes to see ; 
Who did for every sinner die, 
Hath surely died for me. 

" Then, only then, we feel 
Our interest in his blood ; 
And cry, with joy unspeakable, 
Thou art my Lord, my God." 

But, as the connection between the testimony 
of the Spirit in the word, and the testimony of 
the same divine Spirit in the heart, is such, that 
the one is the truth stated generally, and the 
other, the truth particularly applied; it will 
follow, that the word of God ought to be very 
dear to us. It must be eminently conducive to 
our enjoyment of the blessing of assurance, that 
we should, in our inmost souls, devoutly medi- 
tate on the sayings of that holy book ; and that 
the word of Christ should dwell in us richly. 
A Christian, who, by patient study, becomes 
thoroughly conversant with his Bible, usually 
possesses a superior stability of character. 
There is, in comparison with others, more of 
uniformity in his religious experience. He is 
less subject to variation in his enjoyments and 
in his hopes. He is not, this hour, unduly ele- 
vated, and, the next hour, unduly depressed ; — 
now too high, and presently too low $ — but the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 155 

current of his peace runs smoothly, calmly, and 
without obstructions. " Blessed is the man 
whose delight is in the law of the Lord ; and 
therein doth he meditate day and night." 

3. Converse with God, in solemn prayer, is 
also an essential condition of walking in the 
light of his countenance. To restrain prayer 
before God is to incur the certain forfeiture of 
the joys of adoption. In effect, it cuts off the 
intercourse between earth and heaven ; and no- 
thing but darkness can be expected to ensue. 
If we are duly impressed with the value of the 
comfort derived from the witness of the Spirit, 
we shall ask and plead for it earnestly. The 
desire to see, without an interposing cloud, the 
approving countenance of our heavenly Father, 
and the delight of conversing with him who is 
now become our reconciled parent, will bring 
us very frequently to the throne of his heavenly 
grace. " Prayer," it has been said, " is the 
vital breath of every new r -born soul." It is 
plainly the condition of continued and increasing 
life ; the test by which inward piety is ascertain- 
ed ; and the infallible means by which it is 
increased. 

Even in those cases where this evidence of 
the paternal love of God in its first communi- 
cation may be defective, and dimly discerned — 



156 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

like the first faint streak of the light of the 
morning — there is yet the utmost certainty, that 
if the Christian continue instant in prayer for 
this very thing, his views will soon become more 
clear, and his persuasion of his relationship to 
God abundantly more cheering. One doubt 
after another will be dissolved, until he dwells 
in the unclouded brightness of the divine favor. 
Experience will testify, that it has been gene- 
rally so with the saints of God. When they 
have lived very near to him, and have been 
diligent in the duty of secret prayer, their evi- 
dence of the adopting love of God has been 
most satisfactory. Entering into their closet, 
and praying to their Father in heaven, — they 
have experienced the promised reward. If 
there have been, in our experience, seasons 
when the light of heaven has shined more per- 
manently, and more clearly than at other times, 
into our souls, they have usually been seasons 
which have followed devout and fervent com- 
munion with God. Perhaps we may assert, by 
a similar appeal to experience, that the reverse 
is equally true ; und that, when believers have 
failed to maintain this secret intercourse with 
their heavenly Father, their evidence of his 
love has been, in a corresponding degree, ob- 
scured. When, therefore, doubts and fears 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 157 

begin to prevail, and the Christian no longer 
sees with clearness his interest in the promises 
of the covenant of mercy, it will be well for him, 
among other searcnings of the heart, to inquire 
whether the duties of the closet have been dis- 
charged with fervor and frequency. If he 
should find a defect here, he will have made an 
important discovery, of which he must imme- 
diately avail himself to correct what is amiss. 
Bat, even if he sees no reason to conclude that 
he has been chargeable with marked neglect of 
the duty of secret communing with God, he will 
still do well to stir up himself to a yet more 
fervent pleading of the promises. It is the most 
effectual means of securing a happier state of 
mind. Prayer, persevered in, can disperse the 
darkest cloud that ever enveloped a human spi- 
rit; except, perhaps, in cases of physical and 
nervous indisposition, where " the corruptible 
body presses down the soul." And it is by no 
means certain, that these cases of constitutional 
melancholy would be proof against the efficacy 
of prayer, if the afflicted individual could be 
prevailed upon to try perse veringly its utmost 
power. Prayer, to use a striking Scriptural 
phrase, " lays hold on the strength " of God ; 
claims the help of omnipotence ; and raises the 
soul above the dark vapors which, rising from 



158 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

earth, becloud these lower skies. God uniformly 
honors with peculiar manifestations of himself, 
a spirit that gives evidence of prizing his favor 
more than life ; — and the degree of clearness in 
the testimony of the Spirit, it may be generally 
asserted, will be in proportion as the soul, in 
solemn, secluded, and devout prayer, draws near 
to God. 

4. Another precaution, — and one which will 
prove of great assistance to every one who 
wishes (as all must wish) to retain a clear sense 
of the divine favor, — will be found in the com- 
munion of saints. To have frequent intercourse 
with Christians who are strong in faith, and 
lively in grace, — which is at once a privilege 
and duty, — will have great influence upon our 
own characters and feelings. There may, in- 
deed, be persons of a peculiarly quiet and 
shrinking disposition of mind, who may seem to 
cultivate piety most successfully in retirement 
and comparative solitude. But usually, the 
communion with each other, which the divine 
Founder of Christianity has established as the 
rule and order of his disciples, will be found not 
only adapted, but necessary, to their retaining 
the life and the comforts of his religion in their 
souls. The Christian, shut out from the fellow- 
ship of saints, often feels faint and low in his 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 159 

religious enjoyments. His soul dwells alone, 
and is solitary ; — " as a sparrow, upon the house- 
top ;" — feels the want of the cheering presence 
and prayers of his fellow worshipers ; and, not 
unfrequently, experiences some diminution of 
that joy of the Lord which is the strength of his 
people. Even when this seclusion of the Chris- 
tian is involuntary and inevitable, — when sick- 
ness, distance, or lawful engagements withdraw 
him from those social acts of worship in which 
he has delighted, — he cannot but feel their loss. 
And although his absence from these means of 
grace may involve no blame, as they are not the 
result of his choice, yet will his soul lose, in 
some degree, the clearness of its views of God, 
and the consolatory sense of its interest in his 
promises. In a still greater degree may this be 
expected to take place, when believers unwisely 
deprive themselves of the benefits to be derived 
from mutual Christian intercourse and prayer. 
Amidst the crowd of harassing events we meet 
with in this disordered world, — where every- 
thing tends to give to sensible objects a pre- 
dominance over faith, — the soul feels its need 
of all the counteracting influences derivable 
from communion with our Christian brethren. 
We need their counsels. We need their prayers. 
We need the reviving effect which is produced 
11 



160 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

on us while we converse with those who are 
animated with the same hopes, and aspiring after 
the same heaven. We shall usually find that 
we are in the happiest state of mind, — and that 
our evidence of God's love to us is the most 
cheering and bright, — when our faith is strength- 
ened, and our love kindled into holy ardor, by 
a union of spirit with believers mighty in faith, 
and ardent in their love to God. 

5. To sum up the whole — -we may say, in 
general, that whatever we have found, by expe- 
rience, to minister to the increase of our faith, 
is, just in the same degree, conducive to the 
enjoyment of a clear and delightful evidence of 
the divine favor. Faith, according to the view 
which we have already taken of it, is the im- 
mediate condition of our acceptance. This 
grace may also exist in different degrees ; — may 
be weak or strong ;— may be " little faith" like 
that of Peter sinking beneath the waves; or 
" great faith" like that of the Syrophenician 
woman, in her persevering application to the 
Saviour. Moreover, in its strength or weak- 
ness, in its augmentation or decline, it must 
needs have a very considerable effect upon the 
views, and hopes, and happiness of the soul. It, 
therefore, becomes a matter of the highest mo- 
ment, that we should embrace all the means of 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 161 

obtaining an increase of faith, considered in the 
light of a simple confiding trust in the Sa- 
viour ; — an augmentation of that principle to 
which the promise of the Spirit of adoption is 
made. 

A view to this should direct us in the choice 
of our reading; as it is obvious, how great is the 
influence of the recorded views and feelings of 
the eminently pious, to encourage us in the ex- 
ercise of a faith like theirs. In like manner, 
a view to the increase of our faith should guide 
us in the choice of our companions. Our de- 
light should be in the excellent of the earth ; in 
those who live near to God, and walk in the 
light of his countenance. Their spirit will influ- 
ence ours ; and such as those with -whom we 
most frequently associate, shall we ourselves 
usually be. With the same end in view, we 
shall be led to occupy our minds with the all- 
important objects of faith ; to dwell on the 
wonders of redemption ; to meditate on the pro- 
mises ; to direct our eye to the cross ; and to 
Him who, on that cross, offered the all-atoning 
sacrifice. To dwell upon these objects of faith, 
is the most direct way to have faith itself 
increased. 

We shall, moreover, find by experience, that 
there are many things in this sinful world which 



162 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

have a continual tendency to diminish this grace 
of faith in us ; to obscure our spiritual vision ; 
and to deaden our impressions of the supreme 
importance of eternal things. Let it be laid 
down, and well established in our minds, as an 
incontrovertible maxim, that, however fair its 
aspect may be, or however sweet its enjoyment, 
— anything which produces in our minds a 
diminution of faith, is an unmixed and perilous 
evil — a thing to be deprecated and shunned 
with the most careful vigilance. On the other 
hand, our own experience will have taught us, 
that there are certain employments and engage- 
ments which are eminently conducive to the 
improvement and increase of faith in the soul ; 
and in those engagements and employments of 
our time, or tongue, or talents, or influence, we 
shall find it our highest Avisdom to be occupied. 
Indeed, the right use of the prudential means 
of grace is very intimately connected with the 
prosperity and vitality of religion in the soul. 
By using the term " prudential," we wish to be 
understood to signify, all those means of spiritual 
improvement, which, although not instituted nor 
appointed by God, have yet been found by us 
conducive to the increase of our faith and piety. 
Now, it is evident, that the instituted means — 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 163 

as prayer, and the hearing of the word, and the 
assembling together in the name of Christ — 
stand fir$t in point of obligation. From the 
observance of these, nothing but an insuperable 
hinderance can release us. Still it is quite pos- 
sible that, in subordination to the instituted 
ordinances of God, there may be additional 
means of quickening and increasing our faith, 
and of augmenting our spiritual comfort, which 
we may wisely and prudently adopt. Their very 
title shows us, that prudence must dictate to us 
which of these we should select ; and how far 
we should use them. As they are not divinely 
appointed, we must not suffer ourselves to be 
brought under the power of a superstitious ob- 
servance of them. Yet many have found, for 
example, the spiritual advantage of keeping a 
record of God's dealings with them; or of 
observing particular days of humiliation and 
prayer ; or of entering solemnly, and in secret, 
into covenant with God. To him who is much 
in earnest to walk in the clearest light of the 
divine favor, none of these things, which tend 
to secure so important a blessing, will appear 
indifferent. 

A believer must have made but an imperfect 
use of his powers of observation, if he has not 



164 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

perceived, in passing through some years of ex- 
perience, what things they were that did injury 
to .his spiritual interests, by diminishing the 
clearness with which he beheld the reconciled 
face of God. He must have failed in the duty 
of self-observation, if, on the other hand, he has 
not noted down in his memory what things 
have tended to brighten that evidence, and to 
give him a clearer perception of his relation to 
God, as his heavenly Father. Now, these 
lessons, which he has been learning by long, 
and sometimes, perhaps, painful experience, 
let us suppose him to reduce to practice. As 
he walks more closely with God, his light will 
arise out of obscurity, and break forth as the 
morning. He will find that, as he lives near to 
God, watches over his own spirit, keeps the door 
of his lips, converses with spiritual things, be- 
lieves the promises, stirs up his soul to call upon 
God, and shows, in general, that he gives to reli- 
gion that first place in his heart which it claims, 
just in the same proportion the light of God's 
countenance will shine upon him, and the com- 
forts of the Holy Ghost will be poured into his 
heart. And thus is this evidence of sonship 
capable of still augmented clearness, until the 
believer dwells as it were in the suburbs of 
heaven, and the "full assurance of faith" can 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 165 

only admit of one further advance — the con- 
summation of the whole — when faith itself 
shall be 

" lost in sight ; 
And hope in full supreme delight, 
And everlasting love." 



CHAPTEE VIIL 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

As we wish to consider the subject of this 
treatise in every point of view in which it can 
be contemplated, we would not altogether over- 
look the objections which the doctrine of the 
witness of the Spirit has at various times en- 
countered. Some of these have arisen from 
mistaken apprehensions of what those who hold 
the doctrine really believe and teach. And, as 
they have their origin in mistake, such objec- 
tions, we may naturally suppose, will cease, as 
soon as the mind of the objector is set right in 
reference to the points which he had misappre- 
hended. Others of the objections, however, 
have been directed against our interpretation 
of some of the passages of Scripture, on which 
we have supposed the doctrine to be immov- 
ably based, and involve a real difference of 



166 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

opinion in reference to the privilege on which 
we have treated. 

At a very early period after Mr. Wesley 
commenced his career of usefulness, in the year 
1747, he was engaged in controversy with an 
unknown correspondent, who was evidently a 
dignitary of the Church of England, and proba- 
bly no other than the archbishop of Canterbury 
himself.* If this were, however, the title of the 
individual who began the contest, he preserved 
his incognito, and made no discovery of himself; 
passing in all his letters to Mr. Wesley under 
the very common name of John Smith. Six 
letters, on each side, passed between them ; and 
the controversy turned, in great measure, on 
the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit, which 
Mr. Wesley had now, for some years, taught, 
and which he had recently stated and defended 
in his first sermon on that subject, and in the 
two Appeals. The archbishop, (if such he were,) 
when pressed on the point, took refuge in the 
supposition, that the witness of the Spirit to a 
believer's adoption was the privilege of the 
early period of Christianity, but one which 
ceased with the first age of the church, like the 
power of working miracles. 

* For the correspondence, see Moore's Life of Wesley, 
vol. ii, 397-480. See also Wesley's Works, vol. vi, 622. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 167 

Here, then, we meet with what was probably 
the first objection ever urged against the Wes- 
leyan doctrine ; namely, that it was the laying 
claim to a blessing the enjoyment of which had 
long since ceased. 

This is an objection very difficult to deal 
with ; for, as it rests on no evidence, it is not 
very likely to yield to conviction. 

If a man be bent on believing that the privi- 
lege belonged exclusively to the times of the 
apostles, it may be next to impossible to per- 
suade him to the contrary. No belief is so ob- 
stinate and unassailable as that which is built 
solely on the determinations of self-will. 

It is obvious, however, that any other, or 
every other, part of Christianity might just as 
plausibly be explained away, as is the office of 
the Spirit of adoption, by alledging that it was a 
privilege confined to the apostolic age. The 
only answer to such a summary dismissal of a 
vital Christian doctrine is this : — That there is 
not a shadow of evidence of the divine inten- 
tion that such privilege should cease. It is nei- 
ther asserted by any inspired writer, that the 
enjoyment was to be temporary ; nor can it be 
concluded, by fair inference, from anything 
written in the book of God. 

The archbishop's theory was, that there are 



168 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

three ways in which the Holy Spirit may be 
said to bear witness with our spirit that we are 
the children of God- — first, by external, miracu- 
lous attestations ; secondly, by internal, plainly 
perceptible whispers ; or, by some kind of im- 
pressions equivalent thereto ; thirdly, by his 
standing testimony in the Holy Scriptures. 
"The apostles," he continues, "had all these 
three ; — Origin and Chrysostom probably the 
two latter. But, if St. Bernard — several hun- 
dred years after — pretended to any other than 
the third, his neighbors would naturally ask for 
proof, either that it should he so, by Scripture, 
or that it was so, by facts." 

Thus this able divine, and very learned man, 
(for such, whoever he was, we must allow him 
to have been,) conceived of the privileges of 
Christians as diminishing with the lapse of 
time ; being, in the times of Chrysostom, less 
than in the days of the apostles ; and still further 
curtailed in the age in which St. Bernard lived. 

" Let us then," says Mr. Wesley, " suppose 
St. Bernard and one of his neighbors to be 
talking together on this subject." On St. Ber- 
nard's saying, " The Spirit of God bears witness 
with my spirit that I am a child of God ;" his 
neighbor replies, " I suppose he does ; but not 
by an inward perceptible testimony " 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 169 

" St. Bernard. — Yes, by an inward, 'plainly 
perceptible testimony, I now have this testimony 
in myself. I plainly perceive that lam « child 
of God. and thai it is his Spirit that testifies it 
to my spirit" 

" Neighbor. — I fear you are somewhat en- 
thusiastically given. I allow God's standing 
testimony in the Scriptures. But I cannot al- 
low that there is now any such thing as this 
inward testimony, unless you can either prove, 
by Scripture, that it should be so ; or, by facts, 
that it is so." 

" B. — Are not these tvords Scripture, ' The 
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 
we are the children of GodV " 

" N. — Yes ; but the question is, How are 
they to be understood ? For, I deny that they 
speak of an inward testimony. They, speak of 
the outward, standing testimony of God, in the 
Holy Scriptures/' 

" B. — You put a manifest force upon the text 
You cannot prove that it speaks of any outward 
testimony at all. But the words immediately 
preceding prove, to a demonstration, that it 
speaks of an inivard testimony : ' Ye have not 
received the spirit of bondage unto fear / (Is 
not fear an inward thing f) ' but ye have re- 
ceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 



370 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

Abba, Father. 9 ' The Spirit itself beareth wit- 
ness with our spirit, that we are the children of 
God, 9 — even the same Spirit which ' God hath sent 
forth into our hearts.' " « 

" N. — I do not deny that the Spirit bears wit- 
ness with our spirit ; but I deny your peculiar 
interpretation of this text. I deny that this text 
at all favors an inward perceptible testimony." 

"B. — The Spirit which God hath sent into 
my heart, and which now cries in my heart, 
Abba, Father, now beareth testimony with my 
spirit, that lam a child of God. How can these 
words be interpreted at all, but of an inward per- 
ceptible testimony ?" 

" N. — I tell you of God's standing testimony 
in Scripture." 

"B. — This is a palpable violence to the texts. 
They no more speak of Scripture than of mira- 
cles. They manifestly speak of what passes in 
the heart, the spirit, the inmost soul of a believer, 
and of that only" 

Upon the whole, there are probably few who 
would now have recourse to this theory, that 
the privilege of the Spirit of adoption was, in- 
deed, enjoyed in the apostolic times, but that it 
ceased at some period, no one knows when. At 
least, it seems to devolve on those who hold this 
notion of a continually diminishing privilege, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 171 

"to show," as the archbishop says, "either, 
from Scripture, that it should be so ; or, from 
facts, that it is so." Neither Scripture nor 
facts will bear out any such theory. There 
is not a word in the book of God which could 
lead an attentive reader to suppose that any 
portion of the privilege of believers, in refer- 
ence to the knowledge of their own personal 
salvation, was of a temporary nature ; or that it 
was intended, after a lapse of years, to cease. 
And, as little is there in the experience of those 
who live near to God to establish any such sup- 
position. The evidence, both of Scripture and 
of facts, so far as it goes, is in proof that we are 
permitted to expect now the same happiness 
which believers enjoyed from the beginning. 

2. There is, however, another objection, which 
proceeds nearly on the same ground as the fore- 
going. It is to this effect : " This doctrine of 
the witness of the Spirit is nothing else, in fact, 
but the laying claim to a new inspiration." 

This appears to assume, that the Wesleyan 
doctrine teaches those who hold it to expect to 
be apprised of something beyond what is con- 
tained in H0I34 Scripture. This, however, is an 
entire mistake. We know and acknowledge 
that no new revelation, on any point of Chris- 
tian doctrine, is to be anticipated. The book 



172 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

of God is complete :— the volume of inspiration 
is sealed. But this persuasion is perfectly con- 
sistent with the belief, that an influence of the 
Spirit upon the mind of man is absolutely ne- 
cessary, in order that the divine book may pro- 
duce that effect upon those who receive it which 
it was intended to produce. This is all for 
which we contend. No new revelation is, in- 
deed, necessary. But, neither the promises nor 
the threatenings can produce any saving effect, 
without an application to the individual mind. 
In producing conviction of sin, the Spirit ope- 
rates as directly upon the soul as he does in as- 
suring us of our adoption. No sinner, without 
an immediate interposition of the Holy Ghost 
to apply the word, ever trembled under the ap- 
prehension of his guilty and miserable estate. 
He must hear an inward voice saying, "Thou 
art the man !" No one, however, thinks of calling 
this a "new revelation." It is almost universally 
recognized as the ordinary operation of the Holy 
Spirit to convince of sin. In doing this, that 
divine Agent does but apply particularly that 
which the word of God reveals generally. Our 
own personal concern in the threatenings, on 
the one part, or in the promises on the other, 
can only be made known to us by an immediate 
agency of the Holy Spirit upon our minds. If 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 173 

we contend for a direct operation of the Spirit 
to certify the fact of our adoption ; it is equally 
true that the generality of those who object to 
this do yet believe in a direct operation of the 
Spirit of God upon the mind to convince the 
sinner of his sin. The cases, as far as we can 
jDerceive, are exactly parallel. The office of 
the spirit of bondage answers precisely to that 
of the Spirit of adoption. The mighty working 
of the Holy Ghost, in the character of a re- 
prover of sin, and a reveaier of our spiritual 
bondage, prepares us for recognizing him as 
also witnessing our new relation to God, when, 
by justification, that change in our relation to 
our heavenly Father takes place. He who be- 
lieves in the former operation of the Holy 
Spirit may also surely believe in the latter. 
But in neither case is there any ground for as- 
serting that the Holy Ghost communicates any- 
thing new, in addition to an existing revelation. 
He merely gives us to see our interest in a 
revelation already made. 

o. " But at least," says the objector, " your 
doctrine of the witness of the Spirit is new ; 
and whatever is new in divinity is false." 

There is undoubtedly a sense in which it may 
be correctly asserted, that whatever is new in 
theological opinion must be false. Any senti- 



174 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

ment which had never entered into the mind of 
good men at any previous period would unques- 
tionably labor under the disadvantage of having 
a strong presumption lying against its correct- 
ness ; and if it were no more found in Holy 
Scripture than in the writings of good men, its 
claims must be at once rejected. But the doc- 
trine of the witness of the Spirit does not lie 
open to either of these imputations. It is clearly 
assumed in every Scriptural account of the re- 
ligious state of Christ's disciples. In several 
scriptures it is distinctly mentioned ; and it 
finds a place in the writings of the holiest and 
wisest men. For the establishment of the lat- 
ter part of this assertion, which alone requires 
our present attention, (the Scriptural authority 
of the doctrine having been considered before,) 
let it be remarked that many of the best English 
divines have held that there is a witness of the 
Spirit to the believer's adoption, and have spoken 
of it in language which implies that they consi- 
dered it to be a direct testimony, borne by the 
Spirit of God to the soul of man. Take, as a 
proof of this, the following extracts : — " The 
Spirit which God hath given us" is "to assure 
us that we are the sons of God, and to enable 
us to call upon him as our Father." — Hooker. 
" It is one great office of the Holy Ghost to ratify 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 175 

and seal up to us the forgiveness of sins." — 
Bishop Brownrigg. " It is the office of the 
Holy Ghost to assure us of the adoption of sons, 
to create in us a sense of the paternal love of 
God toward us, and to give us an earnest of our 
everlasting inheritance." — Bishop Pearson. 
" From ado]3tion flows all a Christian's joy ; for 
the Spirit of adoption is, first, a tvitmss ; second- 
ly, a seal ; and, thirdly, the pledge and earnest 
of our inheritance; setting a holy security on 
the soul, whereby it rejoiceth, even in afflic- 
tion, in hope of glory." — Archbishop Usher. 
" This is that nvevfta vlodeoiag, that Spirit of 
adoption, which constituteth us the sons of God ; 
certifying us that we are so, and causing us, by 
a free instinct, to cry, Abba, Father." — Doctor 
Barrow.* 

It may appear strange and inexplicable, sup- 
posing this to be the correct view, that the privi- 
lege of receiving the Spirit of adoption should 
have been so little dwelt upon ; that a blessing 
of such inestimable value should have been so 
rarely described and enforced; that it should 
even, at length, have been almost lost sight of 
and forgotten; for we acknowledge this to be 
the fact. Little is said, in the immense range 



For additional testimonies, see Note B., Appendix. 
12 



176 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

of English theology, upon the blessedness of a 
consciousness of the divine favor. We find just 
sufficient to prove that the Wesley an doctrine 
is not a new and unheard-of notion ; but we do 
not find that it has ever had that prominence 
assigned to it which, from its vital importance, 
it might seem to claim. 

We easily account for this. Experimental 
religion, in the church of Christ, has been at a 
low ebb. What was scarcely enjoyed in the 
experience of any who called themselves Chris- 
tians, was not likely to be held up and enforced 
as the common privilege of believers. Theo- 
retically, it might still be held as the right in- 
terpretation of Scripture ; but, experimentally, 
it was almost a lost blessing. Such was the 
case when, little more than a century ago, God 
in his great mercy began a revival of the work 
of experimental religion. It is interesting to 
look back on some events which then occurred. 
There arose on the voyage out, as Mr. Wesley 
sailed to America, a fearful storm, and all on 
board entertained the most serious apprehen- 
sions of going to the bottom. It was then that 
this great man began to perceive that the mem- 
bers of the Moravian church, who sailed in the 
same vessel, were possessed of a secret to which 
he was a stranger. While the paleness of fear, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 177 

or the shriek of agonized despair, was witnessed 
among the rest of the passengers, these pious 
Moravians were calm and fearless. They knew 
in whom they had believed. The privilege of 
Christians to be assured of their acceptance with 
God, was one which that church still held fast ; 
and the members of the Moravian societies seem 
very generally to have lived in the enjoyment 
of the blessing. In contrasting his own fears 
with their calmness and confidence, Mr. Wesley 
might well say, (as he afterward did, on review- 
ing the matter,) " I went to America to convert 
the Indians ; but O, who shall convert me !" 

It was not long, however, before both Wesley 
and Whitefield (for in this they were equal) 
preached the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit 
from their own happy experience of its truth ; 
and the inference to be drawn is, that this doc- 
trine is in no other sense "new" than that there 
has been a recovery and revival, during the last 
century, of a doctrine which had almost gone 
into oblivion, through the declining state of 
religion in the world. 

4. " But," says another objector, " what you 
term the direct witness of the Spirit needs, ac- 
cording to your own account of it, to be con- 
firmed by a reference to the fruits of the Spirit. 
You allow that, apart from them, it is not to be 



178 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

depended upon. It appears, therefore, after all, 
to be an assurance which makes nothing sure." 
Now, it is true that we do insist on the im- 
portance of uniting, with the direct witness of 
the Spirit of God, the evidence deduced from 
the fruits of the Spirit. We also allow that the 
witness of the Spirit, if it were professed to be 
enjoyed where no gracious fruits of holy influ- 
ence could be discerned, would justly be sus- 
pected as a delusion. But we also know that 
the witness of the Spirit, where it is genuine 
and accordant with Scripture, is never found 
apart from the Scriptural marks of sonship. 
Wherever the former is, there also are the lat- 
ter. In the first instance, the Spirit's witness 
is of such a delightfully convincing character, 
that, independently of all examination, and prior 
to all reasoning on the subject, the believing 
soul gives utterance to the accents of filial love, 
and cries, "Abba, Father;" but, subsequently, 
there is time and opportunity given for self-ex- 
amination by the word of God, and for trying 
ourselves by the marks of the children of God, 
which it contains. We lay as much stress on 
the importance of this as the objector himself 
can do ; and by attending to the united and con- 
joint testimony of the Spirit of God and of our 
own spirit, we secure both the comfort and the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 179 

safety of the believer. These are the two points 
to which we direct our solicitude ; because for 
both of these, in equal measure, we find that 
provision is made in the gospel. It is our de- 
liberate persuasion that the true comfort of the 
soul, being the result of its joyous perception 
of our heavenly Father's love, cannot be pro- 
duced in any other way than by the direct tes- 
timony of the Holy Spirit. Whether I am for- 
given, or am still under condemnation ; whether 
I am adopted into the divine family, or am still 
a stranger and an alien, is to me a most mo- 
mentous question. Is there any means of 
having this question solved ? We believe there 
is. We believe that, in conjunction with our 
being adopted into the family of God, there is 
given to us the Spirit of adoption, producing in 
us an assurance of the pardoning love of God. 
Thus the comfort of the soul is secured, and all 
the exhilarating and animating effects follow 
which develop themselves in strenuous obe- 
dience and entire devotedness. But, inasmuch 
as not comfort alone, but safety, is requisite, — 
as it is needful to guard against the possibility 
of a man's deceiving himself, by supposing that 
he has the witness of the Spirit, when in fact 
he has not, — we still follow the Scripture in 
teaching that the evidence, in order to be satis- 



180 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

factory, must be twofold. There must be the 
witness of our own spirit, or the inference drawn 
from perceiving the correspondence of our 
hearts and lives with the marks of God's chil- 
dren which his book contains. 

There can be, therefore, in the Wesleyan 
method of stating this privilege, no ground for 
complaining of its want of certainty. The ut- 
most certainty that can be conceived, is, by the 
twofold evidence, obtained. The believer him- 
self is filled with unspeakable comfort, by the 
direct testimony of the Spirit of adoption. Then, 
for the purpose of confirming him in the per- 
suasion that this is no delusive or imaginary 
enjoyment, there are produced in him the fruits 
of the Spirit ; — " love, joy, peace ;" — filial trust ; 
the spirit of obedience ; child-like submission to 
his heavenly Father's will ; and every other 
distinguishing mark of the children of God. 

If it be said that the latter, or indirect testi- 
mony, is quite sufficient without any direct attes- 
tation of the divine Spirit to the soul, we can 
only reply, that we have never, in our observa- 
tion, found it to be so. We do not find that an 
exclusive reliance upon the evidence derived 
from the most careful and proper self-examina- 
tion, has ever produced, independently of the 
Spirit's testimony, a satisfactory and joyous per- 



. WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 181 

suasion of sonship ; such as is necessary to the 
true comfort and energy of the believer. The 
setting aside of the Spirit's office, as the Spirit 
of adoption, and the excluding of all testimony 
except what is drawn from inferential evidence, 
appears to us equally to set aside one of the 
most delightful privileges of Christianity ; — the 
sure and sober certainty of our acceptance with 
God. 

5. " But your doctrine," it is further objected, 
" is bigoted and unsocial. You anathematize a 
large portion of your fellow- Christians, by teach- 
ing that none are the children of God except 
those who have the direct witness of the Spirit 
to the fact of their adoption. Now, the majority 
of those, whom you cannot deny to be real 
Christians, do not profess to enjoy any such 
privilege." 

To this we have to reply, that we anathema- 
tize none. "We would judge no man. If he be 
a professed servant of Christ, to his own Master 
he standeth or falleth. If he have not been in 
the habit of hearing the whole truth, and if the 
Scriptures have been explained to him other- 
wise than we think is their genuine meaning, it 
would be unreasonable to require of him that 
he should be in every point theoretically right. 
Yet substantially, and in the general character 



182 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

of his experience, he may be a real disciple of 
the Saviour. His heart may be much better 
than his head. 

We acknowledge as genuine Christians "all 
who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
They possess the incontestable mark of disciple- 
ship ;■ — that which is of so much importance, 
that all else, in comparison with it, is as the small 
dust of the balance. We are sure that the 
maxim, " We love Him because he first loved 
us," must remain true ; that we must know the 
Saviour's love to us before there can be any re- 
turn of love to him. Consequently, wherever 
there is a real love to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
there has been previously a manifestation of his 
love to that soul; and such a manifestation as 
only the Spirit of God can give. Having this 
love to Christ, which can only spring from his 
revealed love to us, — these, our fellow- Chris- 
tians, must needs be the excellent of the earth. 
At the same time that they deny in their creed 
the possibility of any direct testimony of the 
Spirit to their sonship, they do in reality and 
substantially enjoy this inestimable blessing. 
They may not interpret Scripture with the most 
entire correctness ; — they may deprive them- 
selves of some comfort. But, if they love the 
Saviour, their hearts are right with God, and 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 183 

there would be found no essential difference be- 
tween their experience and that of their Wes- 
leyan fellow- Christians. 

Let it not, however, be said that, " if this be 
correct, it matters but little whether we hold the 
doctrine of the direct witness of the Spirit or 
not, seeing that in the end the same result is 
produced, either with it, or without it." We 
cannot allow that it is a matter of small moment 
whether we interpret Rom. viii, 16, to mean 
that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that 
we are the children of God ; or whether it only 
means, that the Spirit has recorded something 
in the inspired volume from which we may in- 
fer it. The right interpretation of Scripture is 
a matter of primary importance. Besides, there 
is involved in this, the question whether there 
be any such office of the Spirit as that of the 
" Spirit of adoption." What that expressive 
phrase, "the Spirit of adoption," can signify, 
if it does not mean that the Spirit of God is 
given to witness our adoption, it would be diffi- 
cult to say. And, if it be his office to witness 
our adoption, the giving of such testimony can 
hardly mean, that he laid down the marks of 
it in the Scripture two thousand years ago. 

But if, independently of all other considera- 
tions, it is important to ascertain the exact mind 



184 WITNESS OP THE SPIRIT. 

of the Spirit in the Scriptures, it is especially so 
when it is considered, that a correct belief on 
this point must have its influence on all the en- 
joyments, and, indeed, on all the inward life of 
believers. There will be some, it is true, whose 
experience will go beyond their creed; who, 
while they deny to believers the privilege of 
having the love of God shed abroad in their 
hearts by the Holy Ghost given to them, are 
yet in reality partakers of this blessing ; the 
very existence of which they have been taught 
to doubt. But, generally, it will be otherwise. 
In all ordinary cases, the depressing influence 
of a defective creed will be felt to be injurious. 
Men will not seek that which they have no hope 
of obtaining. For want of the persuasion that 
it is their privilege to receive the testimony of 
the Spirit of adoption, the generality will re- 
main destitute of the blessing. It cannot be to 
them an object of desire and prayer, if they 
have been taught to believe it impossible. And 
thus, while the standard of Christian experience 
is placed too low, many will go on their way 
mourning under doubts and fears, when "the 
joy of the Lord " would be their " strength." 
They will do the work of the Lord imperfectly, 
as servants, while they might labor with the en- 
ergy which filial love inspires. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 185 

6. But, again it is objected : " We need no 
other witness than that which the Spirit bears 
in his work upon the human heart, and in the 
change which he produces there." 

This appears to be the view to which the 
most respected divines, among the nonconform- 
ists of the present day, incline. The Rev. J. 
A. James has given us his views of this inter- 
esting subject, in the fourth of his " Pastoral 
Addresses," in which he treats of " the full as- 
surance of hope." 

Some of Mr. James's objections to the doctrine 
of the direct witness of the Spirit have already 
been sufficiently met. But he insists strenu- 
ously that it is unnecessary ; and calls in the 
testimony of Dr. Wardlaw, to bear him out in 
the assertion. The doctor's theory agrees sub- 
stantially with that of Mr. James. " The Holy 
Spirit," says this very eminent Scotch writer,* 
w speaks in the word. The same Spirit operates 
in the heart. There must be a correspondence 
between his testimony in the word and his 
operation in the heart. The evidence lies in 
this correspondence." Now, we do not deny 
that there is an evidence derived from this cor- 
respondence. But the question is, whether this 

* Doctor Wardlaw, on Assurance, page 104. 



186 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

is the evidence which the apostle alludes to, 
when he speaks of God sending the Spirit of 
his Son into the hearts of believers, and of 
his bearing witness with their spirits, &c. The 
doctor apparently thinks it is ; for he says, — 
" What the Spirit of God has wrought in us, 
harmonizes with what the Spirit of God testifies 
in the word ; and in proportion as our spirits 
have the inward consciousness of this harmony, 
do we possess the witness of the Spirit that we 
are the children of God." Now in reference to 
this decision, which appears to be laid down 
with great confidence as to its correctness, we 
would ask, first: Is it the plain, obvious, and 
common sense interpretation of the passages we 
have adverted to ? (Rom. viii, 16 ; and Gal. iv, 
6.) Would any plain man, by reading ever so 
frequently the epistle of St. Paul, have gathered 
that the testimony of the Spirit was given, not 
in the believer's heart, but in the Scriptures. 

We would ask, secondly : Does not the weight 
of authority, among the ablest divines — at least 
till the last half century — lie directly against 
such an interpretation of Rom. viii, 16 ? From 
Chrysostom to Calvin,*— from Bishop Brown- 
rigg to Bishop Gibson — all have interpreted it 

* See their testimonies in the Appendix. 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 187 

substantially as we do. None seems to have 
dreamed, that there was anything, in that pas- 
sage, about the testimony of the Spirit in the 
Scriptures. 

Above all, we would ask — on the supposition 
that no other evidence is to be looked for than 
that of inference — Will not the number, in point 
of fact, be found to be very small, of those who 
attain a satisfactory assurance of their adoption ? 
and will their " full assurance of hope " ever, 
except in some favored instances, be free from 
the admixture of doubts and fears ? 

It will not avail to say, that a clear assurance 
is not necessary, inasmuch as there may be true 
piety without it. We repeat the conviction, 
which we expressed before, that though there 
may be sincere, there cannot be deep and fervent, 
piety, without such an assurance of our heavenly 
Father's love as inspires joy into the heart, and 
vigor into all acts of obedience. Now, it be- 
comes a serious question, How many, out of a 
large Christian church, will be found happy in 
God — rejoicing in him evermore, and serving 
him with the vigor which filial love inspires — 
if they are taught that no evidence of their 
adoption is to be hoped for, except such as re- 
sults from comparing themselves with the re- 
quirements of God's word ? Will they not say, 



188 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

" Alas ! we find, in ourselves, no such conformity 
between our character and that which distin- 
guishes the children of God, as can lead to any 
satisfactory conclusion, on our part, as to our 
state ?" 

When these complaints are heard, (and we 
apprehend they are not uncommon,) there is 
reason to fear that the individuals uttering them 
are not in a justified state, and that they will 
look in vain for the external marks of sonship, 
until the Spirit of God has introduced the in- 
ward graces which immediately attend on jus- 
tification; namely, peace with God, love to 
God, and joy in God. Where these are, 
according to the full import of the terms, the 
individual possesses all which we include in the 
testimony of the Spirit of adoption, whether 
that doctrine form part of his creed or not. 
But we cannot conceive of a justified condition 
as existing without them. When the apostle 
says, " Being justified by faith we have peace 
with God," he must surely mean a conscious 
peace. When he says, " The love of God is shed 
abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost," 
he must also mean a conscious love ; leaving 
no doubt of its own existence. Now, if a man 
have so believed as to obtain the love of the 
Saviour in his heart, and to possess conscious 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 189 

peace with God ; whatever may be the terms 
he uses in speaking of his religious enjoyments, 
we are persuaded that he is made a partaker 
of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of adoption. 
By no other agency than that of the Spirit 
could this peace, this love, and this joy be 
given. They are not, in any sense of the word, 
inferential; and the conscious assurance which 
they minister of our adoption into the family of 
God, is not the result of any investigation of 
our state ; but springs up in the soul prior to all 
reasoning on the matter. 

Where, then, the doctrine of justification by 
faith is so preached, as that the immediate 
fruits, which the Scriptures ascribe to it, are 
much insisted on ; where peace, and love, and 
joy, are represented as the peculiar possession 
of the justified soul — we do not perceive any 
material difference between such preaching and 
that which is heard from Wesleyan pulpits, 
either in its character or in its results ; and we 
are persuaded, that all which is deep and fer- 
vent in piety will there be found. But where, 
instead of this, the more remote effects — as, for 
instance, keeping God's commands, are repre- 
sented as being themselves the witness of the 
Spirit — those remote effects, we think, will often 
be looked for in vain, or the evidence derived 



190 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

from them will be insufficient to produce the 
loving confidence of a child toward a father. 
This is the defect which runs through the whole 
of Mr. James's lecture on "the full assurance 
of hope ;" in which, apart from this, there occur 
many excellent and useful observations. He 
seems to bring his reasonings on this important 
subject to a point in the following sentence, 
which, to direct special attention to it, he has 
put in italics: "Hereby we know Christ: hereby 
we know that Christ loves us if we keep his com- 
mandments" Can Mr. James explain how, 
and bj what means, we are to keep the com- 
mandments of Christ without the previous ex- 
istence of that very thing — namely, the mani- 
fested love of Christ, which he says can only 
follow the observance of the Redeemer's law ? 
Who ever kept the commandments of Christ 
without first loving Christ? And who ever 
loved Christ without first feeling Christ's love 
to him? The system which Mr. James and 
Dr. Wardlaw sanction with their honorable 
names appears to involve the fault which the 
Greeks termed voregoTTQGnov, and which we, in 
familiar language, call " putting the cart before 
the -horse." The Scriptural order we take to 
be this : First, with a penitent heart, we believe 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 191 

Christ's love to us, and to believe is to feel; 
immediately, we love him in return for his 
love; then, as the sure result, we keep his 
commandments. 

Mr. James's final dictum, that " we know 
Christ loves us if we keep his commandments," 
is very Scriptural and good — nothing could be 
better — supposing him to speak of the confirma- 
tory evidence, intended to preserve the believer 
from all danger of self-deception ; an evidence 
subsequent and subordinate to the revelation 
of Christ in the heart. But nothing can be 
further from the mark, if he speaks of the 
primary evidence of sonship. This must be of 
a more direct character than any self-examina- 
tion as to whether we keep the commandments 
can possibly bestow. Wherever the doctrine 
of justification by faith alone is fully and clearly 
preached, it appears to us that there must be 
appended to it — if indeed it be not an essential 
part of it — the announcement of a present con- 
scious enjoyment of the blessing of pardon. 
And whether this be called by one name or an- 
other, is not very important. It is, in fact, the 
Wesleyan doctrine of the witness of the Spirit ; 
and we are persuaded that this great Protestant 
doctrine of a gratuitous justification of the sin- 
13 



192 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

ner, through faith, is but partially and defective- 
ly preached, if it do not include, substantially, 
the further testimony, that justification and the 
Spirit of adoption are inseparable. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

The writer of this little work would not dis- 
miss it from his hands without a few words of 
invitation and admonition, addressed to those of 
his readers who may, thus far, have favored 
him with a serious perusal of its pages. Laying 
aside all further discussion of the doctrinal prin- 
ciples here advanced, he would wish to dwell a 
little on the importance of the manifested favor 
of God ; and on the right method of obtaining 
and securing the invaluable privilege. 

Let me suppose, my reader, that" in thee I 
have been favored with the attention of one 
who has not been taught to expect any comfort- 
able assurance of salvation. And, as the expe- 
rience of a believer does not usually rise above 
his creed, (although, as we have allowed, it 
may sometimes do so,) I may be permitted to 
suppose that you possess no such evidence of 
your adoption into GkxJ's family as enables you 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 193 

to conclude, with any certainty, that your spi- 
ritual state is safe. At all events, through the 
occurrence of doubts and fears, it is far from 
being happy. 

Or, while " the assurance of hope," — which 
we, by an equally Scriptural phrase, call " the 
witness of the Spirit," — has been represented to 
you as your privilege, you have been told that 
you are not to expect this in any other way than 
by an inference drawn from comparing your 
religious character with the word of God. How 
then, let me ask, stands the case with you 
now ? Have you any confidence, — deserving the 
name of confidence, — that God for Christ's 
sake has blotted out your sins ? You confess 
that you have not ; and you are, perhaps, willing 
to make the avowal, that you do not feel your 
spiritual state to be, in that respect, satisfactory 
to yourself. Now, I wish only to impress upon 
your mind the conviction, that you are living 
beneath your privileges. Far be it from me to 
depreciate whatever of good the blessed Spirit 
of God has wrought within you. You fear the 
Lord, and tremble at his holiness ; and, being 
of an humble and contrite spirit, you have the 
promise that the Lord will look upon you. Your 
regard for the authority of God is sufficient to 
preserve you from open sin ; from the pursuit 



194 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

of the world's polluting pleasures ; and from the 
madness and misery of those who, reckless of 
an approaching eternity, are living only for the 
present world. In short, you are a servant ; — 
sincere, conscientious, and laborious ; — a servant, 
however, — not a son. Comparing yourself with 
what is written in the New Testament of the 
first followers of the Redeemer, you perceive, 
that what is said of their religious enjoyments 
does not accord with the general strain of your 
feelings. They rejoiced, and gave thanks ever- 
more. " We joy in God," said they, " through 
our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom we have now 
received the atonement." " In whom, though 
now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice 
With joy unspeakable, and full of glory." " We 
have received the Spirit which is of God, that 
we might know the things which are freely given 
to us of God." 

Now, we cannot but regret that you have not 
been instructed and led to seek those views of 
Christ which the Spirit of adoption alone can 
give, and those feelings which are their imme- 
diate and sure result. Apart from these, you 
cannot be possessed of that comfort, nor inspired 
with that energy in the Lord's service, which 
are so desirable for you as a Christian. It is 
not a matter of small importance, that you are 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 195 

depriving yourself of comfort. The smile of 
God constitutes the happiness of heaven. The 
light of his favor, shining full on angelic and re- 
deemed spirits, fills them with sensations of the 
most rapturous bliss. And, on earth, it is only 
where a sense of his favor is enjoyed that true 
happiness is known. The religion of the Lord 
Jesus Christ is, beyond all question, a happy 
religion. It is intended and adapted to diffuse 
peace and joy on earth. Gladness of heart, as 
well as singleness of heart, should distinguish 
his followers now, as they did in the first church 
at Jerusalem. For the honor of religion, there- 
fore, and for the sake of that Saviour whose 
name you bear, determine not to rest satisfied 
without that sense of the divine acceptance with 
which true happiness dwells. It is equally con- 
ducive to spiritual energy as it is to happiness. 
Your heart will be lifted up in the ways of the 
Lord; and your spirit will be prepared for 
every emergency. Called to make sacrifices, 
the requisite self-denial and resolution will 
enable you to think them light. Called to 
the performance of arduous duty, it is your 
conscious relationship to God which will keep 
you from shrinking, however formidable the 
task. 

In short, no words of mine, I trust, are need- 



196 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

ful to show you, that it is a great and unspeak- 
able blessing to walk in the clear light of the 
divine favor. And if this be, as we believe it 
is, the privilege of all the genuine disciples of 
the Saviour, — it is, beyond doubt, a most invalu- 
able privilege. If, while you allow its value, 
you cannot yet be brought to see that it is a 
blessing designed for you ; and one which you 
may freely receive ; — read, once more, the New 
Testament carefully through ; with prayer to 
God for especial illumination on this point. In 
doing this, attend to the following suggestions. 
Pay particular attention to those passages which 
speak of the privilege of adoption as belonging 
to all the children of God ; and mark how the 
Scriptures represent it to be one of the peculiar 
titles of the Holy Spirit to be called, " The Spi- 
rit of adoption;" for no other reason, apparently, 
but because he witnesses this adoption of be- 
lievers into the family of God ; and seals the 
sense and persuasion of it on their loving hearts. 
Consider especially St. Paul's train of observa- 
tion, bearing on this point, in the early part of 
the eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans ; 
and of the fourth chapter to the Galatians. 
Consider whether it does not appear, that the 
Spirit of adoption is sent into the heart of him 
that believes, to attest his sonship. Moreover, 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 197 

weigh the import of those passages which re- 
present the happiness, the joy, the peace, of all 
that have believed ; and consider whether that 
happiness, and peace, and joy, are not the imme- 
diate fruit of the Spirit^ wrought by him in the 
heart of the believer, rather than the result of 
any reasoning on our religious state. Consider 
all the passages that treat of the indwelling of 
the Spirit in believers. Observe, that all Chris- 
tians are said to live in the Spirit, — to walk in 
the Spirit, — to be led by the Spirit, — to be filled 
with the Spirit, — to be sealed by the Spirit, — to 
have the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts. 
Think, whether it is possible to suppose, that the 
first Christians, — those who really loved the 
Lord Jesus Christ, — were, or could be, in a state 
of doubt, as to the happy relation in which they 
stood to God. And, if you are impressed with 
the conviction, while you read, that these first 
disciples were happy in God, — rejoiced in the 
clear light of his favor, — and felt themselves 
heirs of his eternal glory, — remember that no 
change has taken place either in the characters 
or immunities of true Christians. What was 
their privilege then, remains so still. The ex- 
amination of the New Testament, with the 
sincere intention of discovering what was the 
experience of the first believers, in reference to 



198 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 

this privilege of the " full assurance of hope/' 
which we have supposed them to enjoy, cannot 
but be useful to you. We are so fully persuaded 
of the sufficiency of the Scriptural evidence, to 
prove this point to the satisfaction of every 
candid mind, that we are well content to rest 
the matter there. But let the inquiry be pro- 
secuted with earnestness. It is no unimportant 
and trivial matter to have the question rightly 
decided. " It is your life." Let it especially 
be entered upon with prayer for the illumina- 
tion of the Holy Spirit. For there is nothing 
in which his sacred teachings are more needful, 
than in reference to the character and amount 
of our religiou s privileges. If you thus sincerely, 
diligently, and prayerfully, endeavor to settle 
the question, whether there be such a privilege 
as the witness of the Spirit of adoption, — we 
may confidently leave the decision of it to your 
own candid and enlightened judgment* 



It is to another class of readers that I would 
now address myself. You believe, theoreti- 
cally, that this is indeed one of the most valu- 
able enjoyments of the Christian believer; 
without, however, so seeking as to obtain the 



WITNESS OP THE SPIRIT. 199 

blessing for yourself. I assume that, among 
those who may peruse this little volume, there 
may be persons of this class ; as, indeed, they 
are found, more or fewer in number, in almost 
all our societies. I address myself to you in 
the language of affectionate admonition. There 
is a defect in your religious experience ; which 
is the more to be regretted, because it is in 
direct opposition to your creed. It is a defect 
which should lead to deep and serious search-, 
ings of the heart ; as, according to our solemn 
conviction, it can be chargeable only on your- 
self. For, the blessing of the witness of the 
Spirit, wherever it is sought earnestly, and 
according to the gospel method, is, we think, 
always obtained. 

Ascertain, if it be possible, the hidden cause 
which has hitherto kept you from the enjoy- 
ment of so valuable a blessing. Entreat the 
illumination of the Holy Spirit, to enable you 
to see what has prevented you from exercising 
such a faith in the atonement as bringeth salva- 
tion. It may be that some defective views of 
the freeness of divine grace — some indistinct 
apprehensions of the character of faith as a 
simple trust in the promise — some magnifying 
of the claims of justice against the tenderness 
of divine mercy — something of this kind has 



200 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

prevented your reposing an entire confidence in 
the goodness of your pardoning God. These 
are matters requiring very clear and discrimi- 
nating views ; especially in minds of a highly 
intellectual order ; and these discriminating 
views the Holy Spirit alone can give. The 
clouds and darkness in which the intellect often 
seems to be involved in reference to them can 
only be dissipated by the Spirit's inward and 
celestial light; before which all difficulties and 
doubts melt away as mists before the sun. 

Or, inquire if the hinderance to your finding 
this peace of God may not exist rather in some 
perversion of the will than in a want of light in 
the understanding. There may be a setting up 
of our own will in opposition to the gospel 
method in reference to the manner and cir- 
cumstances of this divine communication. We 
may wish to receive it in our own way. But 
God's method of bestowing it may require the 
sacrifice of all our preconceived notions. If 
your will, therefore, be not brought into sub- 
jection to the, divine will — at least so far that 
you are entirely willing to be saved in the way 
and method in which it may please God to be- 
stow the blessing — this may account for your 
not having hitherto received a conscious sense 
of the divine favor. * 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 201 

Nor let it be forgotten, that He who has a 
right to demand, in all things, our absolute sub- 
mission and acquiescence, may require of us 
something even beyond the renunciation of our 
will. The cause of his withholding from us the 
sense of his forgiving love may exist among 
the things to which there is an attachment of 
the affections. There may be an idolatrous 
regard to some created good which must be 
put away. At least, it is on this ground only 
that we can account for the delay of comfort 
which occurs in the case of some apparently 
sincere souls, who remain long seeking — per- 
haps " with strong crying and tears " — the 
blessing of conscious pardon. .We cannot but 
suppose that there is something of which God 
demands the sacrifice, and which is not yet 
given up. We refer here, of course, to some 
secret idolatry of the heart, and not to its law- 
ful affections, which we cannot suppose will 
ever prove an obstacle to the obtaining of sal- 
vation. Now, although the immediate cause, 
which deprives the soul of the comforts arising 
from a sense of adoption, is, in all cases, the 
want of a true faith, as a simple reliance on the 
atonement ; yet the remote cause may generally 
be found in one or more of the things we have 
named. A want of clearness in the mental 



202 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

vision — a want of submission in the will— or 
some disorder in the affections of the mind, may- 
be -the secret obstacle to the exercise of a justi- 
fying faith; and, consequently, a hinderance 
to the peaceful and joyous persuasion of our 
sonship. 

To detect this hidden cause, whatever it may 
be — and to obtain the removal of it — should be 
your first and most anxious concern. Permit 
a well wisher to your soul's best interests to 
endeavor to impress you with the importance 
of obtaining, without any further delay, the 
blessing of the witness of the Spirit. If you 
can be once brought to a deep conviction of the 
necessity of this to your happiness — and to act 
under the full influence of that conviction — 
your earnestness in the pursuit of what is your 
undoubted privilege will soon be crowned with 
success. At the risk of being chargeable with 
reiterating the same sentiment, we repeat that 
this is, and must be, the life of all your enjoy- 
ments. How can a creature, whose depend- 
ence, each moment, for all good, is on the great 
Jehovah, need to be reminded that the favor of 
God, his manifested favor, is better than life ; 
and more valuable than all which life contains ! 
This truth is so evident that you cannot doubt 
of it. But this is not all. It is essential to 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 203 

your safety that you should earnestly seek, 
until you find, a comfortable evidence of your 
acceptance with God. You cannot, in any 
other way, retain the spiritual good which you 
now have. It may, indeed, be asserted as a 
general principle, that to remain stationary in 
religion is impossible. Not to advance, is to 
recede. While this is true at every stage of 
our religious progress, it is emphatically true 
here. You have not yet obtained firm footing 
while you remain content without a real con- 
version to God ; and to slide back into cold in- 
difference and spiritual death will probably be 
the result. The good impressions made on 
your mind, if they lead you no,t to seek ear- 
nestly the enjoyment of conscious pardon, will 
die away. You will incur a fearful risk — for 
so all our observation convinces us — of relaps- 
ing into worldliness, or, at least, into formality ; 
and of thus losing all that is vital in religion 
out of your soul. 

But even should this effect not follow; and 
should you, in conjunction with a hundred 
others, whose experience accords with your 
own, be united together as a Christian church — 
how would such a united society be prepared 
to carry out the purposes for which the church 
of Christ was constituted and appointed ? Would 



204 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

they be able to say, — " We know that we are 
of God ?" Would they exhibit a correct model 
of that happiness which Christ's religion in- 
spires ? Would they hold forth, to men around 
them, an attractive exhibition of what the reli- 
gion of Jesus can do in raising those who pos- 
sess it above the desire of this world and the 
fear of another? Would such a church, in 
short, be anything like the first churches in 
the honor which they brought to Christ's gos- 
pel, or in the energy which they put forth to 
spread it? O, surely, nothing can avail to 
make the Christian church what it once was, 
and what it ought always to be, but the fact of 
its members \ walking in the comforts of the 
Holy Ghost," that they may be " edified," and 
" multiplied." 

But I will suppose that you are already con- 
vinced of the supreme importance of that state 
of religious experience of which you have been 
reading ; and that you now inquire, " How shall 
I seek so as to secure a blessing which I feel to 
be necessary to my soul's happiness ?" 
To this momentous question we reply : — 
1. Cherish that deep concern which the good 
Spirit of God has wrought in your heart. To 
be brought to a full resolve to seek what the 
mind is now fully persuaded to view as its privi- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 205 

lege, is a material point gained. Yield your- 
self to this persuasion. Tenaciously hold fast 
this resolve. Be much in earnest about the set 
tlement of a question on which so much that is 
important depends. It is often a want of earn- 
estness in the pursuit of this attainment which 
may account for its not being possessed; for 
God must be supposed to act on that rule which 
his holy word publishes : — " Ye shall seek me 
and find me, when ye search for me with all 
your heart." Many, we have reason to infer, 
do not find, because they do not thus seek. The 
measure of earnestness w T hich they put into the 
pursuit bears no proportion to the value of its 
object. Let it be impressed on your mind that, 
at the present, you have one great business to 
attend to ; and that, while this remains undone, 
nothing else can be well done. Be persuaded 
that this deserves to be sought first of all, and 
resolve thus to seek it. Determine that nothing 
on which the heart has been heretofore set shall 
stand in the way of so desirable a result. Give 
up every idol of the heart ; and this may include 
more than the giving up of everything which is 
plainly sinful. Things w T hich, in other circum- 
stances, would be in a great measure innocent, 
may here be greatly injurious. The soul that 
is bent upon pressing into the kingdom of heaven 



206 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

should have nothing to distract its attention — 
nothing to divert its purpose. Its motto must 
be, "This one thing I do." Even the strong 
words of the poet are not too strong to express 
its feelings :— 

" Is there a thing beneath the sun 
That strives with thee my heart to share ? 
O tear it thence, and reign alone 
The Lord of every motion there." 

2. Yet, while you manifest this earnestness 
in seeking the blessing of the witness of the 
Spirit, take care to avoid legality. Seek it not 
as the Jews of old sought righteousness ; for 
they, says the apostle, (Rom. ix, 32,) " sought 
it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of 
the law." This, which was a stumbling-block 
to the Jew, and has been so to thousands since, 
may, without due care, divert your mind from 
the right path ; remember, therefore, that it is 
not by human might, nor by human merit, that 
salvation is brought into the soul. The firm 
resolve — the laying aside of every weight — the 
giving up of every idol — the strenuous use of 
every appointed ordinance — all this is desirable 
and necessary ; but, at the same time, all is to 
be forgotten, all lost sight of, and you must fall 
back on the cnlv ground of confidence-— 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 207 

" I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me." 

It is by faith — by a simple reliance on the 
atonement made by the death of Christ — that 
you will pass from a state of condemnation to 
one of conscious acceptance ; and whenever that 
interesting moment shall arrive which is to turn 
your darkness into day, and your mourning into 
rejoicing, it will be the result of an exclusive 
trusting in the merit of the Saviour's death and 
passion. 

"But here," you say, " is the difficulty. How 
am I to believe ? What is the faith by which 
the soul is justified ? The general persuasion I 
have of the truth of the gospel does not bring 
peace into my soul. How am I to learn the 
particular character of that faith by which the 
soul trusts in Christ to the obtaining of a pre- 
sent salvation ?" To this we reply, that, so fer 
as the intellectual comprehension of it is con- 
cerned, you have already all the light upon the 
nature of faith which you can have, if you con- 
sider it to be what your language implies — a 
trusting in Christ for a present justification. 
This is its exact character. The very essence 
of justifying faith is this confiding trust in the 
death of Christ as the ground of our free justi- 
fication in the sight of God. Man can teach 
14 



208 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

you no more. All beyond this, or rather the 
true meaning of this, must be communicated by 
the Holy Spirit of God. In no respect is the 
special teaching of the Holy One more imme- 
diately necessary than in enabling us to com- 
prehend and understand the exact nature of jus- 
tifying faith. No man ever did or ever could 
understand it but by an especial communication 
of divine teaching. We might even go so far 
as to say, that no man ever comprehended its 
precise nature until he actually enjoyed it. To 
know what believing is, it is necessary to believe. 
It is not at all uncommon for those who are 
seeking salvation to be involved in great dark- 
ness and perplexity as to what is required of 
them in the act of believing. The faith which 
they need is a matter much more simple than 
they have ever imagined. They labor under 
the mistake of supposing that it is something 
far more complicated and far more difficult than 
it really is. Great obscurity as to this point 
rests often for a long season upon the mind ; but 
the Spirit of God, sometimes more suddenly, and 
at other times more gradually, dispels it, and all 
is then clear as the day. So have we seen an 
involving mist covering and hiding from view 
the beauties of an extensive landscape ; but the 
sun's rays began to penetrate through it, and 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 209 

first the mountains, then the fields and streams, 
and, lastly, the glorious whole, shone out in all 
its majesty and proportions. 

What that faith is which brings into the heart 
salvation from guilt and fear is so plain to those 
who have it, that they probably wonder you 
should find difficulties in what appears so evi- 
dent to them ; forgetting that they were once 
as much in the dark as yourselves. But be of 
good courage. There is a divine Teacher who 
will illuminate your minds. The hour draws 
nigh when your difficulties will vanish. Wait 
on the Lord, and seek him in great simplicity 
with all your hearts, expecting the light you 
need on the nature of justifying faith from this 
divine Teacher, and he will not long leave you 
in darkness. 

In the mean time, while thus waiting for " the 
dawn of day, and the rising of the day-star in 
your hearts," you will do well, as St. Peter 
directs, to give especial heed to the word of 
God — the divine testimony concerning the Sa- 
viour. Let your mind be conversant with Holy 
Scripture; particularly with those portions of 
it that speak of Christ. The truth of God is 
the foundation on which you are to build your 
confidence. All the true sayings of God con- 
cerning his Son Jesus Christ are to be received 



210 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

and confided in — and this is faith. The record 
— the very thing to be believed — is, that " God 
hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is 
in his Son." " In him was life." " He came 
that we might have life, and that we might 
have it more abundantly." " I will give," he 
says, " to him that is athirst, of the water of life 
freely." "Whosoever will, let him come." 
" Him that cometh, I will in nowise cast out." 
These, and a thousand other gracious declara- 
tions, spoken concerning the Saviour, for the 
encouragement of our faith, you will do well to 
ponder and consider. Let the word of Christ 
dwell in you richly. At the same time resolve 
to rest your soul on the fidelity and truth of 
God. Make the effort to believe. You are 
not to wait in passive expectation, (at least, this 
is not usually the best way,) not in mere listless 
wishes, that you might obtain this faith ; but in 
the ardent effort to believe those truths which 
are within your reach. Believe as you can, 
if you cannot believe as you would. Your 
hand, it may be, is withered ; but, at the com- 
mand of the Saviour, stretch it out. You may 
not yet be able to believe the whole and entire 
system of that gospel truth which is to bring 
comfort to your soul. But a very large por- 
tion of it you can believe. You can believe 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 211 

almost everything except your own interest in 
the things which are spoken. Xow, in order 
to obtain this consummation of all your wishes, 
this highest and happiest exercise of the faith 
of a Christian, take care not to neglect what, 
even now, it is in your power to believe. Dwell 
on the wonders of redeeming mercy. Think 
of the infinite source of salvation in the Fa- 
ther's love. Think of the condescension and 
grace of the Saviour in ransoming you by his 
precious blood. Think of the patience and 
tenderness of the Eternal Spirit. Connected 
with these heart-cheering themes, there are 
truths to be believed hi order to peace of mind. 
Give credit to all those things which God hath 
spoken ; and be persuaded of your privilege to 
believe them now. Your first concern (I speak 
on the supposition that your heart has been 
made penitent on account of sin) is to believe 
in Christ, just as the Scripture has set him 
forth. Delay not, on any account, thus to be- 
lieve. Some fall into mistake by supposing 
that they must wait until they feel more before 
they can believe ; whereas the proper way is, 
first of all to believe, in order to feel aright. 
The act of believing must usually precede. 
The suitable feeling of the soul toward Christ 
will follow. And if this right order of feeling 



212 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

follow not immediately, let me advise that you 
still continue to believe that the perfect atone- 
ment of the Saviour was offered for you. It 
may be your lot to be called to retain for a time, 
by a naked faith, your hold on Christ — nudus 
nudum sequi Christum* Despise not the day 
of small things. Think not lightly of this na- 
ked, unrewarded trust which you now repose in 
the Saviour. This simple and unrepining per- 
formance of a plain duty will, ere long, be fol- 
lowed by abundant consolation. Jesus Christ 
is set forth as your only Saviour ; and, " as the 
besieged in a city who have every gate blocked 
up, and but one passage left open by which there 
is any possibility of escaping," so are you now 
"shut up unto the faith." You perceive that 
there is no other mode of escape. You have 
been brought to acquiesce entirely in this way. 
Be assured that it is a safe, as it is a divinely 
appointed one. " An open door which no man 
can shut" is set before you, and you have fled 
to it. Now, therefore, determine to put forth a 
vigorous, powerful, present, and continued act 
of that faith whose exercise does honor to the 
divine veracity, and, at the same time, brings 
heaven into the soul. " Said I not unto thee," 
is the word of the Saviour, " that if thou would- 
est believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 213 

This faith, so far as the grace and help are 
concerned by which we put it forth, is the pre- 
cious gift of God. At the same time it is, 
through the divine goodness and grace, more 
within your own power than you at present 
imagine. God having rendered it possible for 
you, by the impartation of his Holy Spirit, to 
believe the gospel message concerning his Son, 
now requires it of you as a platn duty. It is 
no longer impracticable or impossible for you 
to comply with the divine command; for you 
are delivered from that natural incapacity of 
believing under which your mind long labored. 
If you still complain that you do not see the 
way, or feel the power, or understand the 
method of believing, we would advise you to 
give yourself unto prayer for this very thing. 
Until the dawn of heavenly light in your soul, 
until the rising of the day-star in your heart, 
you cannot do better than wait on God in 
solemn and earnest prayer. Between this and 
the faith which bringeth salvation there is so 
intimate a connection, and the one leads so cer- 
tainly to the other, that if you have made up 
your mind to continue in earnest pleading for 
this faith until you receive it, we may con- 
gratulate you on the certainty of your succeed- 
ing. Ask, then, the gift of the revealing Spirit, 



214 VVIT.NEiSS OF THE SPIRIT. 

who makes known to us the things of God, and 
reveals the Son of God in the heart. Plead 
for the Spirit of adoption, whom God has en- 
gaged to send to assure you of your sonship. 
Be resolved to seek until you find a satisfac- 
tory assurance of the safety of your state to- 
ward God ; and fear not that you shall fail. 

5. You may be called to persevere in seeking 
this inestimable blessing, through considerable 
discouragement and depression. You may, for 
instance, stand quite alone; without a Chris- 
tian friend to encourage you ; without any one 
to counsel or direct you in the pursuit. Should 
this be the case, still take courage. Lose not, 
in the slightest degree, either heart or hope. 
Remember that many who are now in heaven 
have sustained, after the example of the Cap- 
tain of their salvation, their severest mental 
conflicts alone. As it was said of the Saviour, 
that " of the people there was none with him," 
so have those who sought him been sometimes 
called to share with him the solitude of the gar- 
den. Many a contrite soul, with no other di- 
rection but the word of God, no counselor but 
the Eternal Spirit, no resource nor help but in 
prayer, has sought the Lord with crying and 
tears, in secret, and has found him. If, then, 
it should seem to be your lot to be left to 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 215 

struggle alone, look upon it as one of the provi- 
dential appointments of your heavenly Father, 
who can bring inestimable good out of what is, 
for the present, "not joyous but grievous." 
Retire into secret, with your Bible for your 
companion. Read, and pray for the illumina- 
tion of the Holy Spirit. Ask of Him, who will 
not deny your prayer, to reveal his mercy 
clearly to your soul. Pray for this manifested 
love of God, with the conviction that the bless- 
ing is to be obtained ; — that thousands have ob- 
tained it ; — and that God is infinitely willing to 
give it to you. 

* It may comfort you to know that even your 
being obliged to seek it in solitude, and without 
any human assistance, is one of those circum- 
stances out of which your heavenly Father can 
bring good. Religion sought and found in the 
stillness and retirement of the closet is likely to 
be held fast. It is less dependent upon excite- 
ment, and strikes its roots generally in the deep 
and deliberate conviction of the understanding. 
If, therefore, you should have no human direct- 
or or guide, cast yourself the more entirely on 
the guidance and direction of Him who is above 
all human teachers. He has said, " Enter into 
thy closet, and shut thy door .... pray to thy 
Father in heaven, and he will reward thee." 



216 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

But if, on the other hand, you have it in your 
power to avail yourself of the counsels and 
prayers of the church, we should be inclined to 
say, Gladly embrace the means thus put into 
your hands. In all ordinary cases they will be 
likely to conduce to your encouragement and 
comfort. It enters into the gracious design of our 
God to make his creatures useful to each other, 
in the time of distress felt on account of unpar- 
doned sin. He makes those who know the way 
to heaven instrumental of leading others into it, 
by counsel kindly administered, and by prayer 
believingly offered. 

6. There are, indeed, times of especial visita- 
tion of heavenly influence ; when many at once 
seek and find the blessing of pardon. These 
seasons of the pouring out of the Spirit, and of 
the consequent revival of religion, occur often 
in consequence of special services held, and of 
more fervent prayer continuously offered. We 
cannot expect that they will be viewed by ail 
Christians with the same favorable eye. There 
are those whose calm temperament feels dis- 
turbed, and whose sensitive and refined taste is 
shocked by what appears to them, though in- 
correctly, a scene of confusion and noise. The 
cries of penitents for mercy, the prayers of 
ministers and others on their behalf, and the 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 217 

directions and exhortations, quietly and in a 
subdued tone of voice administered to them, — 
all this, especially by a mere spectator who 
takes no part even in the prayers offered, may 
be felt to be by no means conducive to edifica- 
tion. But the lesson to be inferred is this, that 
it is no place for a mere spectator. The scene 
is too solemn to be turned, by any man calling 
himself a Christian, into the spectacle of an un- 
employed hour. He must lend to it the assist- 
ance of his prayers, and of his influence ; or it 
were far better that he retired at once to his 
closet, to pour out his soul there. 

Now, should the church be favored with one 
of these "times of refreshing" (avaijjvgecdg re- 
vival) "from the presence of the Lord," you 
will probably be inclined to ask, would it be 
advisable to avail yourself of the present season 
of extraordinary influence, and of the movement 
consequent thereupon, to seek, with increased 
earnestness and expectation, the salvation of 
your soul ? Many, you perceive, are induced to 
seize upon the precious opportunity. They 
take to themselves the divine encouragement, 
" Now is the day of salvation." They resolve 
to seek it now. They expect to find it now. 
They determine to cast aside everything which 
might come between them and the object of 



218 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

their intense desire — the salvation of their souls. 
With an earnest simplicity, which nothing but the 
overwhelming sense of their great need could 
inspire, they come forward to receive the ex- 
hortations, and to be benefited by the prayers, 
of their ministers and guides. 

Should you, on witnessing some such scene 
as this, feel a degree of hesitation as to whether 
you ought to present yourself among the peni- 
tents, and solicit an interest in the prayers that 
are offered for them, it will only be necessary 
for you to decide, whether you can so far lose 
sight of self, and of the presence of man, as to 
have recourse to this extraordinary method in the 
entire simplicity of your heart. " Simplicity," 
says Mr. Wesley, "is that disposition of the 
mind which saves us from all unnecessary and 
unprofitable reflections upon ourselves." If 
your concern for the obtaining of a present sal- 
vation is sufficiently powerful to raise you above 
the timid inquiry, " What will the world — what 
will man think of me ?" then go, and pray with 
those that pray ; and join with those who, like 
yourself, are in earnest to find, without any 
longer delay, that which is so necessary to their 
happiness. You may safely conclude that you 
shall not seek it thus in vain. The mercy of 
God meets and distinguishes the faith of those 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 219 

who thus show that there is no cross which they 
would not willingly take up, no sacrifice which 
they would not cheerfully make, in order to ob- 
tain his favor. It is the last effort of a deter- 
mined faith. And it is always faith, casting 
itself, in absolute despair of all other help, upon 
the mercy of God and the atonement of Christ, 
which brings a consciousness of pardon to the 
soul. In whatever way you decide to seek the 
manifested favor of God, let me finally say, 
Be assured that the privilege is yours. Without 
the enjoyment of it determine not to rest. Whe- 
ther sought amidst the fervent and social prayers 
of a revival of religion, or found in the calm re- 
treat of the closet, in hearkening to the " still, 
small voice" of the Spirit — the place, the man- 
ner, and the circumstances are unimportant. 
But, for the blessing itself, be importunate with 
God. While thankful for all that divine grace 
has already communicated, be not satisfied with 
your religious state, till " God has sent the Spirit 
of his Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Fa- 
ther." 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 221 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE A. Page 84. 

It has been the most anxious wish of the author to 
ascertain the precise import of the original word cvjifiap- 
rvpeG) ; which, in Romans viii, 16, is rendered, "beareth 
witness with." This anxiety he has felt from a very- 
early period of his ministry ; a circumstance which has 
induced him to keep the Greek word in view in all his 
readings in that language ; and thus to endeavor to form 
an unbiased opinion as to its exact signification. The 
result has been an entire acquiescence in Mr. Wesley's 
critical decision, and a conviction that there is no firm 
footing to be obtained anywhere, except where he finally 
took his stand. 

It has been remarked (page 85) that Mr. Wesley 
hesitated to decide, at the time when he published his 
first sermon on the Witness of the Spirit, whether the 
Greek term necessarily implied, from the very construc- 
tion of it, the existence of two witnesses bearing testi- 
mony to the same thing. But twenty years elapsed, 
during which his attention was more or less directed to 
this doubtful point ; and he then published his second 
sermon, (No. 11, of the first series,) which must, in all 
fairness, be supposed to contain his mature and delibe- 
rate judgment on the matter. In that sermon he ex- 
presses, in very strong and decisive language, his final 
conviction as to the point on which he had before hesi- 



222 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

tated. "It is manifest," he says, "here are two wit- 
nesses mentioned, who together testify the same thing — 
the Spirit of God and our own spirit. The late bishop 
of London, in his sermon on this text, seems astonished 
that any one can doubt of this, which appears upon the 
very face of the words." 

We have here, first, the deliberate opinion of Mr. 
Wesley ; and, where ample opportunity had been 
afforded for examination, on any question of classical 
or Biblical literature, his judgment was remarkably 
sound. We have, then, the authority of the bishop of 
London — probably Bishop Gibson — to whom Mr. Wes- 
ley refers, as a scholar whose opinion on a matter of 
Greek criticism ought to possess considerable weight. 

Both Mr. Wesley and Bishop Gibson concur in the 
sentiment, that on the very face of the word GVfipap- 
Tvpsl, two witnesses appear plainly to be intended. Or, 
to state the same thing in other words, the Greek term, 
from its very construction, and from its use by the best 
writers, must necessarily imply at least two witnesses, 
testifying, in conjunction with each other, to the exist- 
ence of the very same thing. 

Now the amplest researches will prove these two 
scholars to have been perfectly correct in this decision. 
I have never found the word used in a different sense by 
any writer in any one instance. There are always, as 
far as I have been able to judge, two witnesses implied, 
as concurring in their testimony — both witnessing the 
same thing — and the one, by his testimony, confirming 
the authority of the other. 

The word occurs precisely in the same form as it is 
used by St. Paul — the same in mood, tense, number, 
and person — in the third book of Xenophon's History 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT, 223 

of Greece, (Editio. Leipsise, 1800, page 160.) 'AM' 6 
Uocreiduv ug fidXa aoi ipevdousvu Karefxrjvvasv. 
GVfiptaprvpn tclvt' avrti kgI a aJ^Qkararoq ?^8y6/ievog 
Xpovog elvat. '-Neptune hath borne witness against 
thee, as a man entirely false ; . . . and Time, which 
is said to be the truest witness, gives, with him, his 
concurrent testimony ;" . . . literally, " bears witness 
with him to the same things." 

It is here obvious to remark, that Neptune and Time, 
two imaginary Grecian deities, being the witnesses, Time 
bears his testimony, not to Neptune simply, but in con- 
junction with him. That which the older grammarians 
called the ablative case, has been classed, it is true, by 
the moderns under the same head as the dative. And 
it must be allowed that it is the same in form. But to 
suppose that, because it is called the dative, it must 
needs mean " to," rather than " ivith" is to show a very 
imperfect acquaintance with the Greek language. 

The next authority for the use of the word (which I 
give, because I wish to present it, first, exactly and 
literatim, as it is used by the apostle) will be found in 
Plutarch's Life of Romulus, (Frankfort edition of 1620 ; 
vol. i, p. 39.) Even the distance of several hundred 
years between this writer and the one last named, may 
at least prove that the word never varied in its meaning 
through all the ages of Greek literature. 

Plutarch is stating the faithful observance of the mar- 
riage tie, which prevailed among the ancient Romans ; 
so that, for two hundred and thirty years, no man put 
away his wife, and no woman left her husband. This 
he calls the testimony of Time to the excellence of the 
ancient institutions. He then brings in a second source 
of evidence to the same point — in the friendship of the 
15 



224 witness or the spirit. 

two races of Romans and Sabines, and in their final 
amalgamation. Here is, first, the evidence of Time ; 
and then the concurring evidence of the fruits, or re- 
sults. Bef3aioT7}Tog r/v dpydoaro irepl rove ydfiovc 6 
Xpovog eon fidprvc. . . . rw de togovtg) xp6 v( t> av f L ' 
uapTvpti teal to. Ipya. " Of the stability which he effected 
in reference to the ordinance of marriage, Time is wit- 
ness ;" (that is, the two hundred and thirty years above 
referred to ;) " and, together with this long period, the 
fruits that followed bear witness." 
. The passages already adduced will show that this 
concurrence of testimony may exist where one of the 
parties testifying is contemplated by the writer as an 
intelligent being, actually existing, at least in the na- 
tional creed ; while the other testimony is that of cir- 
cumstances, or results, or fruits. The one witness, 
therefore, gives direct testimony ; the other, indirect 
and confirmatory. I think this important to be remark- 
ed, because it is perfectly similar to the use which St. 
Paul makes of the word. 

Inthe next passage which we shall adduce, both the 
witnesses are intelligent subsistences— -living persons; 
It occurs in Xenophon's History of Greece ; from which 
we have already brought one example. (Oxford edit., 
1703, p. 452.) V E/Uye de 6 Uehomdac on 'Apyetot nal 
Aotcddec paxy 7]tt7]{aevoi elev. ... cvvefiapTvpet 6' avrCi 
ravra ndvra 6e uatjO?) Myet^ 6 Ti/aayopac Adrjvatoc. 
li Pelopidas declared that the Argives and Arcadians 
were overcome in the battle, . . . and Timagoras, the 
Athenian, bore testimony with him that all these things 
were truly spoken." 

We now turn to St. Chrysostom, whose knowledge 
of the full power of the Greek language, at least, is un- 



WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 225 

questionable. He is, moreover, among the fathers, one 
of the most judicious of the commentators on Holy 
Scripture. This may not, indeed, be very exalted 
praise ; for, in this province, they did not excel. But, 
at all events, Chrysostom knew the force of a Greek 
word ; and we^ook to his comment on Rom. via, 16, to 
ascertain what he thought of ovufiaprvpei. He plainly 
decides for two concurring witnesses. Tl 6e egti, to 
7Tvevfia red TTvevfian Gv\i\iaprvptl ; f O Trapd/c/l^roc, <prjGi, 
t<j x a pt a f xaTL T & oedofievu 7](uv. Ov yap tov xapiG\LaToq 
hart % <j>G)v?i fiovov, a2,?Ji fcal tov dovrog ttjv dopeav, 
7rapaK?i^rov. " What, then, means * the Spirit beareth 
witness with spirit]' The apostle says, the Comforter 
bears witness with the free gift which is given unto us. 
For the voice is not the voice of the gift only ; but also 
of the Comforter who giveth the gift." Here the chief 
evidence is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. The sub- 
ordinate evidence is the gift which this divine Comforter 
has freely imparted ; meaning by this, apparently, the 
child-like spirit of love, and joy, and trust, which he has 
graciously produced ; which is, in itself, an evidence of 
sonship ; especially w T hen confirmed, and rendered in- 
dubitable, by the voice of the Comforter himself. 

If St. Chrysostom is not exactly right, he comes very 
near the truth. We have no fear that any real scholar 
will demur to our translation of this important testimony. 
But we will confirm it by appending the Latin version, 
just premising, that the quotation is made from the Paris 
edition of 1633, vol. iii, p. 194. " Quid porro sibi vult 
* Spiritus una cum spiritu testatur V Paracletus, inquit, 
cum dono nobis dato : non enim doni solum vox hsec est, 
sed et Paracleti, qui donum largitus est." 

It may be necessary, further, to observe that, while at 



226 WITNESS OF THE SPIHIT. 

least two united testimonies are always supposed wherever 
this verb is used, yet, in a few instances, the persons or 
things that conjointly give evidence may not be very dis- 
tinctly named. To an attentive observer, however, the 
plurality of the witnesses will very plainly appear. In 
Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, line 1158$ there occurs a 
passage in which Ciytemnestra says to Agamemnon, — 

2vfifj,aprvp7}(j£ig 6g uftefiTTrog fjv yvvrj. 

Here, at first view, it may not appear very plain who the . 
joint witnesses are. They are, however, certainly im- 
plied in the use of the verb itself. The sense of the 
passage will be found, on examination, to be this : "You 
shall bear witness with me," (that is, you shall confirm my 
evidence with your own testimony,) " that I have been a 
blameless wife." 

This observation of the occasional use of the word, 
where the concurring testimonies are not very distinctly 
marked, will apply to the two other passages of this 
epistle, where alone the word occurs besides in the New 
Testament. These are, Romans ii, 15, and ix, 1.* A 
plurality of evidence, in both these instances, is, with a 
little examination, plainly visible. In the first of these 
passages, the concurrence of testimony is between the 
inward conscience of the persons spoken of, and their 
external acts in their reasonings with each other. 

* In Heb. ii, 34, the word is varied by the insertion of the pre- 
position £TTl. Still its meaning is nearly the same ; and it will 
be found, on examination, that the evidence it speaks of, is not 
only twofold, but even threefold. 

In Rev. xxii, 18, the word is not only different, but the true 
reading, by a vast preponderance of manuscripts, is uaprvpu) 
kyd. (See Griesbach's New Test.) This passage, therefore, 
C&n afford no evidence, either one way or the other. 



WITNESS OF THE SPITUT. 227 

In the latter passage, the apostle is solemnly testify- 
ing to an important truth. " I speak the truth in Christ. 
I lie not." We have here one witness. Where do we 
rind the concurring evidence 1 I should be disposed to 
answer, In the direct testimony given by the Holy 
Ghost to the apostle's conscience. "My conscience 
also bearing me witness," (avfi/LLaprvpovGr/g — bearing a 
concurrent testimony.) " in the Holy Ghost." 

To sum up the whole : many passages have been 
adduced in which a joint and concurrent testimony is 
most certainly signified by the word GvpfiapTvpeo). Not 
one passage has yet been brought forward where the 
word simply means, "bears witness to "-*-or where it is 
used in the meaning of the uncompounded verb paprvpo. 
The preposition gvv "with" — when forming part of this 
word — is never a mere expletive. None of the Lexicons 
which possess the greatest authority give any intimation 
that the compound verb is ever used to signify, " I bear 
witness to" Stephens's immense Thesaurus, Scapula, 
Hederic, and all the rest which possess any weight, ren- 
der it by "Unci testor " — " I bear witness together with ;" 
— " Simul testijicor" — "I testify in conjunction with;" 
— "Testimonio meo comprobo" — "I give concurring evi- 
dence by my own testimony." And, on the whole, the 
evidence that St. Paul referred to two witnesses, is so 
strong, that we may well wonder, with Mr. Wesley and 
Bishop Gibson, that there should ever have been any 
doubt in reference to this question 



228 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

NOTE B. Page 175. 

ADDITIONAL TESTIMONIES. 

Chrysostom is rhetorical, but powerful. (Homily on 
Rom. viii, Paris edition, of 1633, vol. iii, page 194.) 
"Orav de to irvevfxa fiaprvpy, Tioia Tiotnbv a/KptfSoTita ; 
el [lev yap avd-pconog, q ayyeXog, tj ccpxayyeTiog, $ uXkrj 
Tig ToiavTT} dvvafiig tovto vmaxveiTO, kclv a\L§ifiaXkeiv 
rjv elttor Ttvag. Trjg de avoTaTo ovaiag Trjg nal duprjoa- 
fievfjg tovto . . . fiapTvpovG7]g Jiyav^ Tig afKpia^Tr/aece 
Tioittov. " For when the Spirit beareth witness, what 
further hesitation can exist 1 If, indeed, it were a man, 
or an angel, or an archangel that had given the gracious 
assurance, some might possibly still doubt. But when 
the supreme Being, who is himself the Author and 
Source of adoption, bears his testimony, who would 
doubt any more 1" 

Calvin says, — " Neque enim sponte mens nostra, nisi 
preeunte Spiritus testimonio, hanc nobis fidem dictaret." 
"Neither would our own mind spontaneously produce 
this persuasion in us without the preceding testimony of 
the Holy Spirit." 

Erasmus says, — " Mutuum esse testimonium inter 
Spiritum Dei et nostrum ; non quod noster spiritus con- 
flrmet Deum, sed quod sibi testis est." " The testimony 
of the Spirit of God, and of our own spirit, is mutual and 
reciprocal ; not that our own spirit can add anything by 
way of confirming what God has testified ; but still it is 
a witness to itself." 

THE END. 



BOOKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT. 



Life of Rev. Charles "Wesley, M. A. 

COMPRISING, A REVIEW OF HIS POETRY*, 

Sketches of the Rise ami Progress of Methodism; 

WITH NOTICES OF 
CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AND CHARACTERS. 

Bg Sljomas lackaon. 

• One large volume, 8vo. With a Portrait. $2 50. 
The name of Charles Wesley will ever be in honorable remem- 
brance as the zealous coadjutor of his brother in that extensive 
revival of true religion which distinguished the last century, and 
as the author of the greater portion of those incomparable hymns, 
the use of which has for nearly a hundred years formed so pro- 
minent a part of the devotions of " the people called Methodists." 
Although more than fifty years have passed away since he rested 
from his labors, there has been no separate memoir of his life 
until the appearance of the present volume, which is in many 
respects one of the most interesting and important works on 
religious biography that has issued from the press for many years. 
It is chiefly prepared from the journals and private papers of Mr. 
Wesley, which were kept in his family till the death of his daugh- 
ter in 1828, when they became the property of the Wesleyan Con- 
ference. It forms a large and handsome octavo volume, of 
seven hundred and ninety-seven pages ; and the stjie in which 
it is got up is highly creditable to our Book Concern. No Method- 
ist pieacher should be without it. 



Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism: 

A SKETCH OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE 

Wesleyan-Mctliodist Societies through the World. 
Bg (Stomas Jackson. 

In one volume, 12mo. Price Sixty five cents. 



BOOKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT. 



The Mother's Practical Guide 

IN THE EARLY TRAINING OF HER CHILDREN: 

CONTAINING DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR 

Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Education. 

BY MRS. J. BAKEWELL. 

Large 1 81110. Price Forty cents. 

We have perused this beautiful little volume with unmingltd 
satisfaction, as a valuable accession to the few unexceptionable 
works we have met with on the subject of infant training. Every 
page is marked with the feelings of a mother's heart, overflowing 
with the milk of human kindness, and regulated by strong good 
sense and religious principle,— Scottish Guardian. 

We have treatises on education generally,, and on the diseases, 
diet, etc., of children, which are of much value ; but there was 
yet wanting a mother's practical book, unincumbered with pro- 
fessional technicalities, the result of inquiry and mature experi- 
ence, and one which the young mother could receive as a manual 
of instruction by which she might safely be guided. Mrs. Bake- 
well, by giving such a book to married females, has, we feel as- 
sured, performed a most valuable service for her sex, and we hope 
her work will find access to those for whose use it is so well 
adapted. — Newcastle Courant. 

Such a work was much needed; for although we have many 
treatises on the education of children, we have nothing so full and 
judicious, immediately addressed to mothers, on the entire subject 
of the training of their offspring, in reference to their physical, 
their mental, and their moral being. The volume is altogether a 
treasure to Christian mothers. — (London) Evangelical Magazine. 

This little book is designed to subserve the most useful ends 
in the training of children; and it is evidently written by one 
who has made herself well acquainted with her subject. We are 
sure that every mother who reads it will be better qualified thereby 
to execute the sacred trust committed to her by the God of 
nature. — Ladies" Repository. 



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